Temperamental
by EverythingAtOnce
Summary: The Twins supposedly do ballet, Alvin is losing it, and Brittany has no clue as to what's going on. What in the world could seriously cause this to happen? *Sorry guys, I forgot to mention this at the last chapter: "The End." This story is over...sorry for the confusion!*
1. Chapter 1

**Okay...so, I'm going to try my best to be brief, but this story I just wrote for the heck of it. I've had the idea for quite a few months now, and I just decided to bust it all out now.**

**Originally, this piece was _suppose _to be a one-shot...buuuuuuuuut, I kind of suck at keeping things short, and this story really would've, probably, murdered your brains if you tried to read it all in one sit-in. Some things need time to sink in, whereas other things don't... This is one of those things that you probably wouldn't, or can't burst that brain of yours to absorb all in one sit-in.**

**I had to break this story down, and what you get for each so-called "chapter" is what you'll get. If you feel like I'm skipping, sorry, but keep in mind this was supposed to be one whole chunk of words, not like monkey bread where you get to take separate chunks at a time... Yeah...**

**So, I hope you enjoy, and I was just having fun with this story. Some things will/may sound off, and even unnecessary I bet, but you'll live. I'll explain the idea and inspiration all at the very end of this story, and after this _brief _note (yeah, it's not very brief), you won't be hearing from me until the end.  
**

**You may get confused, and you may not. Just bear with me. You won't know everything at the very start, such as the character's age or whatever...but the answer will come (or at least it should come) eventually.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alvin and the Chipmunks.**

**Enjoy. ;D And thank you for coming by to read!**

* * *

"That game was amazing!" Alvin Jr. exclaimed as he began to hook up his guitar.

"I know, right?!" his twin followed right after, high-fiving his brother before they hooked hands and jumped, ramming into each other's shoulders with the force of an angry bull. Staggering backwards from the run-in, Al Jr. frowned. "That wasn't a good one." His brother nodded in agreement.

"Here, let's give it another go," Alvin Jr. prompted, readying his hand.

Al Jr. grinned fiercely, nodding his head, pulling his red cap down before taking his brother's taunting hand in a firm, locked grip. Their grip was strongly held onto each other that it got to the point where for others it would seem like the only possible thing that could release the two brothers was a key. But for these boys, they had it down. It was their synchronization and pure understanding of each other that kept them in tune; they held the key with the simple glint of one another's daring eye. One slight smirk that held their faces straight could easily have been the "go" signal, and in this case it was.

In the blink of an eye, they jumped high off of the ground as if a trampoline was beneath them, and rammed into each other's shoulders together like a speeding bullet striking through the heart, and then landed triumphantly on the ground. With success written all over their faces in permanent ink, Al. Jr. proudly did a small handshake with his brother. "Dude, nice—that was awesome."

"Right back atcha, bro," Alvin Jr. smirked with a look that practically was shouting "we're awesome!"

The two brothers looked to their side, just remembering they had a guest over—well, _friend_ was the more correct term—but for what they were doing, this so-called "friend" was a guest at the moment. The Twins were going to perform a new song they had just written. They would've preferred to perform this new song to the rest of the others in their band…but they were busy at the moment, _apparently.._. According to their drummist, she had a soccer game to go to (from what they've learned from their parents, she's practically the spitting image of her mother, or in their case, their _aunt_, Eleanor); for their keyboardist, the nerd apparently had to study for some "crazy" exam that was _supposedly _the next day… Now, for _him, _they definitely saw his inner nerd _bloom_ from—not one—but _both _of his parents, their other uncle and aunt, Simon and Jeanette. So, to round their situation up in short: their so-called bandmates, that were clearly _so _reliable to always be there through the thin and thick, were too "busy" to spend five minutes of their lives to hear the twin's new written song.

But because the two identical brothers wanted to show their song to at least _someone, _just so they could hear some feedback, they asked one of their many, many friends, Brad. How lucky was he to receive the once-in-a-lifetime privilege to get chosen to listen to the twin's brand new hit? Well, at least they could only assume it was going to be a hit. Not to be too modest, but…their song really was that grand. Maybe even almost as grand as their awesome guitars!—_maybe. _They still had to think that one through…

"So, Brad, you ready to get blown into the back of that wall form our _outstanding _performance?" Alvin Jr. confidently flashed his crooked smile as he test strummed his vibrant, crimson, glistening guitar that glimmered like fire. Al Jr. did the same process with his own matching guitar, glancing over at their audience briefly.

"He's totally going to get blown _through _that wall…" He commented under his breath with a sly grin. The brothers shared eye contact with one another, a soaring sky blue confidence flying in their eyes.

"Yeah—bring it on Sevilles. Let's see if you can rock it out here through music, just like you two did our last football game, last night, with that winning touchdown," Brad taunted, taking a seat down on the bass stool behind him. The two brothers shared a look at hearing this come out of their friend's mouth. Smirking at one another, as if on cue, they rolled their eyes casually. _They didn't need to PROVE anything—especially when they already knew they were just that awesome, and not to mention, amazing. _They knew this song was good. In fact, "good" was such a disgrace of a word to even use when explaining their song! It was like eating the seeds of an apple, instead of the _fresh_, _juicy_, _tart_ and _sweet_ flesh.

Shrugging their shoulders, Alvin and Al Jr. tested their microphones before grinning excitedly at each other. Nodding his head, Al Jr. waited for the oncoming beat from his brother before he began to strum his own guitar. As the two boys played each note they had practiced in complete perfection and harmony, the tiny nervous butterflies that had slightly aroused in the pit of their stomachs settled back down comfortably, and soon instead of their bodies and guitars performing, their hearts emerged as if a black curtain had just been pulled back revealing a bright white light, and took over the show.

By the time the two boys finished presenting their song, the sweat of victory that began beading their foreheads lightly, leading to streamers of glory sleeking down the sides of their faces, brought their smiles out on their faces. They did it. And they knew they did it with success. They performed the way they had hoped they would, and they did it absolutely perfect. Oh how they were _basking_ in their magnificence of awesomeness! They totally rocked it. Without. A. Single. Doubt. They just killed it. And when they looked upon their audience's face—oh how they wished they had a camera to legitimately take a picture, because the look upon their friend's face was _priceless! _Where was that dumb camera when it was _really _needed?

Brad was speechless. Check. That was just what the Twins wanted.

Brad was frozen out of their _astounding_ performance. Check. Again, just what they were aiming for.

Brad had his mouth hanging open, waiting for a fly to come crawling in. Check. And double check! The look on his face was completely priceless with the large gap between his upper and lower lip.

The list only could go on and on!—everything on their list was practically all checked off.

As the cool wave of pride washed over the two brothers, renewing their confidence and dignity from the staining rust, Brad began to make an attempt at speaking. "You guys…"

"Boys!" a feminine voice sounded off from behind them like a chandelier's shattering glass. Everyone in the echoing room from the twin's performance, looked to the direction of the voice. "I am impressed!" Brittany came walking over carrying a distinct, sweet smell of designer perfume. "You boys sounded better than _Alvin!_" The Twins smile broadened at this.

"Seriously?!" Al Jr. proclaimed, all pumped up to perform once more.

"We did better than Dad?!" Alvin Jr. chimed in excitedly. For a while they've been trying to impress their dad, Alvin, but he always—_ALWAYS_—found something that they needed to improve on. He'd tell them things like "You're faces look constipated! Boys, smile! Remember! That is the _biggest_ ladykiller move you can do!" or "You're not starting at the same time. You may have been a millisecond apart, which is fairly close to being exact—but that doesn't cut it. You got to be smack right on with each other. Retry it again." And one time, he even rocked it off with his own guitar just to show them how they should strike a certain key—which they thought looked wickedly amazing!—they've been practicing that move for a while now and they just used it in their performance just barely out of habit. Alvin had told them that it was best to create habits that improved performance.

Brittany rolled her eyes with a scoff. Placing her clean pristine hands on her hips, her crème sophisticated dress that had a milky pink floral overlay blending nicely with her rose gold jewelry, she curved her tinted pink lips into a sly smirk. "Boys, my darlings, I know the difference between an amazing performance compared to some," she allowed her features to scrunch a little as she began to examine her right hand, "wannabe, stuck-up punk trying to make the front cover." Glancing to the Twins whose faces were beginning to falter a bit, she shook her head snickering, "Boys! Yes! You _totally_ performed a lot better than your dad! (But, it's debatable if you out rock n' rolled me and my sisters…)." She pursed her lips still stuck in debate about that. No one could out rock and roll her and her sisters… "Don't look so down, you're not going to attract _any _girls with that weak grin!" she continued on, pushing aside the thought. "That was by far the _best_ performance you've ever done!"

At hearing this, both Alvin and Al Jr.s' faces lit up like the sun coming out from behind the grim clouds. Turning to each other they did another small handshake with their hands, complimenting each other's awesomeness, and both big and small details they did during their performance to add a bit of flare.

"I'm so proud of you! My little baby is growing up," Alvin Jr. joked, pinching his brother's cheek.

Immediately swatting his brother's hand away, Al Jr. smirked stating, "Thanks old man! You know you're growing so old too!—how can you even see with all of those crinkles sagging your eyes shut?" He then placed both of his hands up to his brother's face, pulling down the skin near his eyes to make him look like the future of his age.

Brittany shook her head at the twin's behavior. Yup. Despite how much she tried to teach them to become well-mannered gentleman, they still took on Alvin's curse of being obnoxious. Ha, well, at least they knew how to keep their annoying hands and comments to themselves unlike _some _men… She subconsciously shook her head, gritting her teeth. _Why _couldn't Alvin keep his stupid little remarks between his excruciatingly dumb mind and his brothers, anyway!? _Ugh…he was so, so, so…_

Suddenly her ice blue eyes froze on something she didn't notice before: there was another boy in the room. He looked strangely familiar, but that was probably because he's been here at their home before. Brittany looked to the Twins and cleared her throat. The two identical boys paused midsentence and craned their heads over to her slowly, their movement much like an owl turning its head. She smiled and began, "Uh, I see we have a guest…?"

"Oh! Yeah! We do!" the two clamored, completely forgetting about Brad, who now appeared stiff with wide, hypnotic eyes, his mouth slightly gaping open. Al Jr. smacked the back of his brother's head, causing the matching red cap his brother wore, crookedly on his head, to fall to the ground. Alvin Jr. defensively repeated the action towards Al Jr., but this time when he knocked his brother's hat to the ground, instead of merely letting it fall to the ground for and easy bend and pickup, he snatched the red cap and threw it to the side, snickering as his brother let out a loud "Hey!" chasing after his precious cap. Snorting, he looked to Brad with a wide grin, but as his brain registered the state Brad was in, his smug smile began to fade like the setting sun. Furrowing his eyebrows, Al Jr. coming back up to his side screwing his hat on securely, he soon caught on to what his brother was seeing.

"Um, Brad…?" Alvin Jr. hesitantly spoke up, slipping his guitar over his head, the instrument no longer firmly hanging on his shoulder with its black strap. Brad didn't even flinch. He didn't even _blink._ Was he even breathing? Alvin Jr. looked to his other half, who simply shrugged his shoulders. It was as if their friend was in another dimension or something. Had aliens secretly abducted him while they were talking it up with their mom?

"So, this is Brad? Your two's friend?" Brittany came walking up, her heels leaving nothing but an empty echo of where she stepped. As she approached, Brad suddenly blinked, heaving out a breath, looking side to side, clueless. Brittany took a step back, crossing her arms, muttering to her boys, "_Charming_…does he always do that?" She glanced quickly to her boys, pursing her lips. Her sons befriended a psycho? Well, maybe not that…but he definitely was…strange.

"What? Where am I—oh!" Brad jumped up. "Ms. Miller! Please, uh, excuse my, uh…just forget what just happened!" he bursted. Brittany slightly jumped a little, blinking her eyes. "I'm really sorry about that! I, uh, I-I was lost in thought." He flashed his most charming smile he could muster, due to his shading cheeks.

Brittany managed a smile, but laughed it off. "No, it's…_fine…_" She waved it off with her hand. "And Miller is my maiden name (which I have no idea how you even knew that)—but you can just call me Brittany. You don't need to address me with the whole Mrs. Seville crap. I prefer Brittany." She felt old being called a "missus," and it didn't settle with her too well…

"Oh, Brittany. Okay. That's chill." Brad nodded his head, crossing his arms in a laid back manner.

Brittany opened her mouth, but clamped it shut. Turning to her boys, she stated, "Well, I'll leave you two—er, I mean three, back to whatever you boys were doing." After that was said, she ushered herself out the way she came in, strangely feeling a little awkward from that conversation.

"That's not your mom, right?" Brad scratched the back of his neck, his hazel gaze glued to the entrance Brittany recently just exited in.

Al Jr. glanced to his brother, eyeing Brad with his careful blue gaze. "Ah, dude, that actually was."

"Yeah…" Alvin Jr. followed closely behind.

"Oh, really?" Brad blinked.

The Twins nodded their heads. What was up with him? Maybe he was still blown away from their performance. Yeah, that's what it was! "So, we actually have another song we've written—are you cool to listen to it, too? Since we're down here?" Alvin Jr. asked, placing the strap to his guitar back over his shoulder.

Brad nodded and the Twins smiled. As the two brothers got set up, once again testing their equipment, they motioned for Brad to sit back down. After introducing their song and explaining how it came to their inspiration, they began to start their song up through their vocals before they joined their guitars into the introduction.


	2. Chapter 2

The following afternoon the next day, the scorching sun burned its rays straight through every building it touched, unleashing a thick heat wave throughout Los Angeles. Everyone had cranked up the air conditioning and wore whatever they could that didn't have so much material. To Brittany that meant it was time to pull out the shortest shorts she owned and the most air-breathing top she had. She loved the sun, because that meant it was time to switch the winter and fall clothing out with her summer and spring collection. Personally, she thought her summer clothing was a thousand times cuter than her winter clothing—the colors were definitely a lot brighter, whereas for winter it was all dreary and boring blues (although, Simon and Jeanette seemed perfectly fine with this atrocity; Eleanor and Theodore, however, sided with her, thankfully—although they would defend the Blue Team occasionally more than they should have).

As Brittany descended down the stairs, finally having made up her mind with what top she would wear, a small smile crept up her face as she sauntered passed a cringing Alvin who had his head hovering over scattered sheets of papers all on the white table in front of him. His eyebrows were set in stone right next to each other like friendly neighbors faking their close relationship, when in reality all they wanted to do was spray each other's eyes with pepper spray and snap the other's neck. He would often run a stray hand through his hair before heaving out a grunt and counting how many more sheets of papers he had to go through.

Brittany could only snicker under her breath. Can't say she didn't warn him because she did give him a heads up… Setting down her glass of water that she'd been drinking due to the hot summer day, she turned with a smirk to Alvin, who was looking over the bills and taxes still with a distressed face, every now and then cursing and cussing under his breath, mumbling something about a complaint of why he was the one who had to do the bills. _Served him right for procrastinating until now, _was all she could say insider her concealed thoughts.

"Hey, Alvin," she casually began, turning to grab a magazine from off the low glass table in front of a large, wide screened TV. She figured she'd…enlighten his mood with a small delightful conversation. Well, at least it'd be delightful to her. Flipping to a random page, she slowly began to walk over to the large, full-sized window that reached from the ceiling to the floor. Glancing up out the long-walled window at the view of their large backyard, she eyed an orange capped cat, the rest of its fur white as snow, creeping along the side of the fence like a sneaking rat. Her lips twitched, tempted to disgrace her features into a frown.

"Hmm" was the response she received. She sighed, already filled to the brim with annoyance. The least he could do was reply properly. She was already getting into a bad mood.

"Alvin," she tried again, in a singsong voice, trying to consume her anger at not so much her husband, but for once something else: The annoying cat that was now scratching its nasty claws up against their white fence. Ugh…the thing was _so _annoying… Why couldn't their neighbors keep that dumb cat on their _own_ property? She really should think about installing an electric fence that was only sensitive to cats or something…

Alvin huffed, irritated, and responded back with the same singsong voice, "What? You want to do the bills instead?" His spirits lifted. But then in that same second, his shoulders sagged. Was he going insane? Of course she'd just _love _to _not _do the bills. But it was still worth a shot to ask her. Maybe she was feeling awfully kind, today. Eh…unlikely, though, to his own dismay.

"No," Brittany hummed, the building pressure of anger about ready to pop at the sight of the cat doing its own "business" in their yard. She was going to kill it…and their neighbors… Wait, no, she was going to kill the cat, skin it, bake it in a lovely apple pie, and give it to their neighbors that owned the hideous creature. _Then, _when their neighbors compliment her for the wonderfully tasted pie, they'll ask her for the recipe and she'd just tell them, "Oh, you know, eggs, apple, sugar…your cat…the usual things you'd put in any apple pie for your most beloved neighbors." And then she'd just smile at them.

As Brittany smiled along at the thought, she continued her conversation with Alvin subconsciously, still lost in thought with the idea of how to rid their yard of that cat. "I was going to say…" Her face contorted and she bit her tongue. Ew, no. There was absolutely _no way_ she was going to get away with baking that apple pie without _herself_ dying of pure disgust. Yuck. No. She softly let a small sound escape her lips as she suddenly felt the disappointment dawn on her. Maybe Alvin would be a saint and bake the pie for her instead…then she could give it to their neighbors. Wait, but no, again—he could _not _cook properly to save his own life…maybe Eleanor? No…Theodore! He'd be a sweetheart and do it for her! Her heart dropped in that same second at the outcomes. She bit her bottom lip as her hands gripped her magazine ruthlessly. Why did that cat like their yard so much anyway?! It _did _have its own yard to contaminate all of its nastiness in…

"Uh, Britt? Hello? You were saying…?" Alvin stared at the back of Brittany's figure, suddenly realizing how tight she had gotten, and soon after instantly recognizing the tension in her arm muscles. He slowly got up out of his seat, happy to have finally found an excuse to a break, and strolled on over to Brittany. By the time he stood right next to his wife, he matched his gaze to hers, following her hard stare. After a few seconds, he turned his gaze back to Brittany, not seeing the cat she'd been staring at since she walked over to the window, and gave her an interesting look. What was _wrong_ with her?Scanning over her cautiously, as if she was a sensitive explosive that could erupt any second, his sky blue eyes landed on the poor magazine in her straining grip. Immediately, he widened his eyes. "Whoa! Hey, hey, hey, Brittany!" he exclaimed, loosening her hands on the magazine. "I actually like this magazine!" he complained, finally ripping the magazine out of her hands.

Brittany blinked, completely oblivious to what had just happened. Peering down to her hands, burning hot red with indented web-lines running across them from holding onto the magazine for too long and too tightly, she could only look in horror at her hands. She pursed her lips, trying to keep control of her hands from doing the unthinkable.

"Brittany," Alvin suddenly gasped, "your hands—they're covered in…wrinkles! Geez, Britt! How fast have you been _aging?" _She held her breath in order for the ticking time bomb inside of her to not go off. She wasn't going to lose control. She was fine…she was okay…this was just Alvin… "Oh, you're not looking too hot, Babe, maybe I should just go get some anti-aging cream for you to conceal those old granny marks…" Alvin smirked, catching the sudden spark in her cold stare. Operation Annihilation was officially ready for complete success…

_She wasn't going to lose it… She wasn't going to lose it… She wasn't going to lose it…_

"I actually think those marks look great with those wrinkles that fan out from your eyes!" he added, the sly grin on his face deepening.

_She was going to kill him._

Bingo. He immediately saw the button get pressed as she exploded.

"Watch it Seville! I don't have wrinkles! I know it, you know, and the whole world knows it!" Brittany snapped, stomping away from the view of the window. Ugh!—she hated cats and she most definitely hated Alvin!

Alvin trailed after her, tossing the magazine he still held in his hand back onto the glass table. He actually really didn't care too much about that magazine. "Calm down, this is normal. You're going into shock—you're in denial. One day you'll accept this fate. Oh, and which Seville are you talking about? Is it me, or you?"

She halted in her steps. Turning around, she crossed her arms tightly as if trying to suffocate the air. "_You! _Duh!" she shrieked, turning back around. Was he being just plain stupid?

"Ah, ah, ah," Alvin shook his head. "That's where you're wrong, Love. You see, you're no longer a Miller. If you haven't forgotten already, you're a Seville, now, remember?" he taunted, too, folding his arms, but proudly across his chest. He had this in the bag. "You know, some symptoms of shock can be delirious delusions. You may just be talking to yourself," he simply shrugged.

Brittany turned around, opening her mouth, but clamped it shut. Clenching her jaw, she looked up at Alvin in fury. The things she would do if he wasn't simply mortal… His neck was so close to her hands.

"Yup, that's what I thought," he smugly stated. Oh how he absolutely adored Brittany. This was exactly why he treated her this way. "Oh, and, what were you going to say earlier?" he suddenly asked, remembering their earlier conversation. Well, really it wasn't a conversation because she only called out to him and then after that…nothing. She was stunned by his charms. That's what caused her to stop.

Brittany opened her mouth, her angered expression beginning to melt like a candle. Right…she still had some things to say to him… Well, not really, she just felt like bragging about their kids. That's all. She smiled and simply stated, "The Twins performed one of their songs. You know, they're really getting good. Like really, _really _good. I think—wait, no—I know they're better than you. Like seriously, they are better than you and your brothers."

"Excuse me?" Alvin chuckled. "What did you say? I think I heard you wrongly. It almost sounded like—"

"You heard me correct." She simply flashed a sweet, innocent smile.

"What?" he snorted in disbelief. "No…no. Pffft, one can perform better than _me… _I mean, the Twins are really good—but, better than me? Um, I think you hit your head, Britt…" He reached his hand out to touch her forehead, suddenly seeing an invisible mark of where she must've gotten hit.

Brittany swatted his hand away as he chuckled. "No, actually, some people can perform better than you. For example," she clasped her hands, slowly walking towards Alvin who stared her down, "my sisters and me. We totally performed better than you and whatever," she waved her hands around, "fiasco you had with your brothers."

Alvin snickered, "Ha, _right…_" He stepped forward to her, getting closer to her face. "You're so hilarious, _Darling—_sometimes I forget to laugh!" He placed both of his hands on Brittany's shoulder, causing her to eye him carefully, almost cautiously. It was like he was a wolf trying to befriend a rabbit: By the end of the day, when the wolf had finally friended the innocent, timid creature, he'd lure the poor thing into the shadows and the next day, the rabbit would never be seen with the wolf, or anywhere, ever again. "I don't think you know who you're _really _dealing with when you say that—"

"Hi Mom! 'Sup Dad!" the Twin's voice suddenly sounded off like a trumpet, as the two said boys came rushing up the stairs carrying a cool breeze with them. Following them hot on their trail, Brad came assailing up the stairs, too.

Smiling, Brad waved, "Hey, Brittany!"

When the three boys disappeared up another flight of stairs, the sound of their stomping feet rushing down the stairs in unison like a bunch of soldiers training on bleachers, could be heard echoing throughout the room. Both Alvin and Brittany blinked.

"Bye Mom! Rock out Dad!" the Twin's voice sounded off once more as they went rushing back down the stairs they had come from. Alvin smirked with a snicker, for just a split second.

"Bye Brittany!" Brad waved once more, flashing a lingering smile at her before rolling along with the train the three boys had created in their march line.

"Um…hi?" Brittany cocked her head to the side. Sometimes she wondered what was going on in Alvin and Al Jr.s' minds… But then it's probably best if she didn't know. Their minds were probably a reincarnation of Alvin's…except, of course, a little bit more on the sophisticated side. Shaking her head, she shoved Alvin away from her and wandered back over to the glass table for a new magazine.

Alvin, who was now configuring his poise, looked to where the three boys had just disappeared to. "Uh," he looked to Brittany, "who was that?"

"Hm?" Brittany glanced up at Alvin with an annoyed look. "What do you mean?"

"Who was that kid?"

"Oh, you don't know who he is?" she asked surprised, finally picking out a satisfying magazine and taking a seat on a nearby white couch.

"Um, _no…_" Alvin pressed for her to elaborate.

"Oh…well, his name's Brad…" She began flipping through her magazine, scanning each page carefully.

"Go _on_…"

"I think you were asked by his parents to give him guitar lessons when he was younger…" She figured this out as soon as she left the boys to their performing, yesterday. She knew Brad looked familiar… Well, personally he looked really familiar—she recognized his name, but his appearance was familiar to her too; and she never really had seen Brad when he was younger.

That's when it clicked for Alvin. It was almost genius how fast it all came back to him like a simple switch was flipped. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "That's _him? _That's right, his parents were practically _begging_ for me to give him lessons! That boy was a lost hope! He was terrible!" he cackled, shaking his head. He really did try to teach the kid, he really did… As soon as Brad somehow managed to break one of the strings on his guitar, Alvin knew he was a lost cause. He still didn't get how the string even broke! Trying to teach Brad had to be by far the most ridiculous thing he ever did.

"Wait, so since when did you ever meet Brad? I don't think I ever introduced you two to each other…" Alvin suddenly realized. He folded his arms as his mind began to replay the scene of Brad saying hello and goodbye to Brittany. It was somehow…strange. There was something about the way he said those things. But he wasn't too sure whether it was his imagination or what because…just because.

"I met him yesterday when the Twins were performing…" She mumbled, turning the page to her magazine.

"That recent?" Alvin questioned, now getting fairly concerned…again, just because.

Brittany nodded her head, signaling that she didn't want to talk anymore.

Looking back to where the ghost of the boys had been lingering, Alvin's eyebrows furrowed together. Tightening his jaw muscles, he glanced back to Brittany who was mindlessly flipping through the magazine. _Just because…_ What exactly did that mean? He wasn't even sure…


	3. Chapter 3

The next few days, and the next few weeks had been the most enduring days ever. The answer to his _just because _feeling was gradually emerging from the shadows like a nightmare. Strange things were happening. Alvin was more alert than ever. He was finding himself get so _paranoid_ over every single thing! Well, every single thing that interacted with _Brittany, _that is... At first he wasn't sure…but now he was. He had cracked the code and was absolutely _positive. _And he didn't like the results. Not. One. Bit. It was final. He knew for sure.

1. He _hated_ Brad.

2. Brad was in love with his woman.

3. And he wasn't sure if Brittany's feelings were countering.

_It was absolutely driving him insane._

It was so irrational and abnormal for him. He felt like a demon had taken his place. Something was wrong with him. Was he sick? Did he have some sort of deadly virus? It certainly felt like it. Sure, maybe he wasn't feeling the normal symptoms of vomiting, headaches, dizziness, violent coughing, and many others...but he was feeling that he was on the verge of losing his mind. He needed to cure himself of this insanity creeping up his spine. He needed to find a way to fight this feeling off. But how? Well, normally to fight off a virus you need to go back to the beginning and figure out how the virus was even implanted into your system so then you can start a cure…

This was ridiculous. Now he was some sort of nerdy doctor? No way—as awesome as it would be if he were to figure out a cure that could save billions and billions of lives, this just wasn't something he was capable of—this was something for people like Simon. With all of the experiments and testing, Alvin would probably blow up the building he was in—not that he was dumb or anything… He just didn't expertise in that sort of….thing. His expertise ranged from sports, to singing, and then to ticking Brittany off. Wait…experimenting wasn't considered a sport, now was it?

At first, he tried to push away any arousing thoughts. He thought he probably misread the signs. But the following weeks that began to pass by like a rocket ship just proved his theory. He recognized that smile that Brad had flashed at Brittany the very first day he saw any interaction. It may have appeared to be a small "friendly" greeting of a simple "Hello," but it most definitely wasn't. Alvin _knew_ the rules and ways of flirting. He knew the looks. He knew the signs. He knew everything. Heck, he was the one who practically _invented_ the rules. Love was something he knew like the back of his hand! (Except, of course, when it came to his own love._ He simply goes into denial with that_…)

It all began with that _just because _feeling. That was where the virus had been implanted into him. As soon as that virus began to spread throughout his body, he finally began to see the invisible. And he wasn't hallucinating.

He noticed, and saw it all. Brad was definitely in love with _his _woman. It was as simple as that. But simplicity didn't mean it was any easier than spelling out his name. Alvin didn't like this—in fact, he hated it. He caught the very first sign without even trying to find it: the smile. When Brad smiled at Brittany, it wasn't a simple quick-and-run type of thing—_no. _It was so much more than that.

The next thing his gut feeling began to oddly expect was: Brad showing up more—and he was, not to his own surprise. The guy was practically over at the Seville's residence every _single _day! And he wasn't just hanging around at their home! Oh no, it was much, much more than _that. _He was literally, actually, physically, presently, purposefully hanging around with Brittany. Alvin knew that _for sure. _It was a sealed contract.

Alvin still remembered talking with Brittany in the sunroom, and the Twins came in, resentfully along with Brad, to tell them that they were going to go to some party at the beach that day. Brad passed a few words with Brittany, and before he left, he was totally eyeing Brittany up and down. It was as clear as daylight, and Alvin for sure wasn't hallucinating or misinterpreting. This was an actual, serious matter. He has been trying to somehow bring up this situation through his conversations, but he just hasn't been _flowing _with Brittany lately. Their conversations have become sketchy. They were like a scratched disk. Try playing it and it'll keep skipping and freezing up. That's just how they were at the moment. Their interactions have become unnatural—he feels almost _shy _around her, Brittany, of all women! It was excruciatingly strange for him, and he didn't like it. He was beginning to wonder if Brittany was noticing. But she didn't seem to care…meaning she probably hasn't even noticed a thing.

But that was a good thing. It's best if she didn't know anything at all…

For a while now, he hasn't had any fun with her. It's felt like a millennium since he ever made some hilarious snarky comment that would bring fire to her eyes. He hasn't had anything to tease about…nothing to make fun of her for... And the moment he does find something, he _shies away! _ Ridiculous, right? It was horrid, and wretched, and absolutely miserable! He needed to fix this. But the problem was he didn't know _how _to_. _Brad was practically all over the scene. He was in every picture. How was he supposed to cut the guy out? Who _knows _when he's going to make his next move… It absolutely was _sick. _How _old _was Brad anyway? Right, he was seventeen, same age as the Twins… Weren't there a thousand other girls at his high school? Why was he choosing _Brittany? _Of all the women in the _world _he chooses Brittany. Didn't the maniac know she was a lunatic with an extremely bad temper? And not to mention already taken? Obviously _not—_but, not that she was his possession or anything…

The worst thing about this was that it opened Alvin's eyes to a much broader perspective. He was catching every single thing he normally didn't _care _about. But he didn't pay any attention to these things because he wasn't _vexed_—frustrated. Great, now he's probably _worrying _about something he really didn't need to have any concern about. And for a bonus, his insanity and paranoia wasn't just happening around Brad either…

As Alvin stared at Brittany, the thick smell of barbeque lingering in the air, he heaved out a sigh as he folded his arms and leaned against the large tree behind him. The warm evening air gently wrestled with the leaves of the trees and everybody's voices could be heard dancing through the breeze. The neighborhood was having a little "get-together-dinner" (barbeque), like they always do every year in the summer. Brittany was currently picking out a small plate of light food under the old, rusting pavilion, and that's when it all started.

One of the neighbors began to approach Brittany. And now he was talking with her. And they were laughing. And he was—what _was_ he doing? Was he—he was _flirting with her! _Alvin nearly flipped, but kept his cool, glued his feet in place, and watched with hard sky blue eyes. Shaking his head lightly, he sent evil vibes out of his eyes to the man talking with his wife. He recognized the way the beady-eyed man was looking at her. It was very…ugh…_seductive_. He shuddered. That man was always such a _creep_…no wonder he always asked if he could mow their lawn or do some sort of repair for their sprinkler system (which their sprinkler system was just fine). He just needed an excuse to get close to Brittany! No, but seriously: He always was presenting the idea like he was some sort of salesman advertising for this great, amazing product.

By the time the creeper man left, to Alvin's own relief, another man, nothing but skin and bones, approached Brittany. He was even _worse. _He was also hitting on Brittany. He grabbed both of Brittany's arms when he greeted her with his stupid, pathetic smile (Alvin's smile was so much more charming.). Why was this guy even trying to flirt with her? Soon, though, _another _man, short and stubby, approached from behind Brittany, and _oh boy… _ He used the _oldest _trick in the book: He crept his hand over to where Brittany had set down her plate of food and threw her fork _off _onto the _ground. _What was this world coming to? Alvin watched with a grim smirk on his face as he watched the man behind Brittany bend down and pick up the fork, presenting what he had just done for her by "noticing her fork had fallen on the ground and he just so happened to be near to help save the day!"

"_This is so ridiculous!"_ Alvin sneered under his breath as he continued to watch in amusement, yet also with a bit of fire burning in his eyes.

As the show played on, eventually the boney man talking to Brittany first, walked off, realizing that the other guy was pushing him out to the back of the line. He'd probably be back with flowers or something, Alvin could only assume sarcastically through his own darkness. He heaved out a sigh as his face drooped. This was a great way to spend some summer dinner with your neighborhood—watching your wife getting hit on by a bunch of other men was just what he needed to boost his self-esteem.

When the man Brittany was now currently having a conversation with ended, Alvin continued to watch as she turned back to the table and her plate, now facing his direction, stared disgustedly at her "dropped" fork, quickly glanced side to side and behind her, and tossed the fork into a nearby garbage can, grabbing another new fork. He looked after her almost as if he was a secret agent secretly on guard—the job was to keep his target safe—keep her safe—making sure that nothing happened to her. His face faded to a solemn stance. But a small trace of humor edged on the ends of his lips, weakly pulling them up into a smile. She was still a clean freak.

Soon, though, _ANOTHER _man came approaching Brittany. What was going on?! How many guys were going up to her? How did Alvin not notice this ever before? Were this many men _always_ approaching her? No. They weren't always approaching her like an obsessive crazy paparazzi clan because he's normally always by her side (almost like a guard dog when you put him in the situation). He knew Brittany was one to make a conversation with, but he didn't know she was practically a _mark._ The whole entire _neighborhood_ was flirting with _his _wife! His woman! He had to hand it to her: Brittany was the most attractive female out of all the other women, but he didn't know she was practically every man's crush…

"Hey, Alvin!" a voice suddenly chirped off to the side. Alvin glanced to the voice and immediately the glare that was masking his face got torn off.

"Theodore!" he grinned. "Simon!" he hollered, finding his other brother trailing right behind the youngest out of the three. "You're here!"

"What'cha lookin' at?" Theodore walked over to Alvin's other side, trying to match his gaze to his brother's.

"He's watching Brittany," Simon stated matter-of-factly just as Alvin opened his mouth. This caused his heart to skip a beat.

"What?" Alvin turned to Simon, acting confused. How did _he_ know? Did he have some sort of video camera recording his every move? Instantly his eyes began to fly all over the place, focusing everywhere except for on a pair of serene blue eyes.

"You know what I'm talking about—I've been watching you myself for some time." Yup. There definitely was a video spy camera somewhere. Where was it? "It's actually been quite entertaining. It's almost like I'm watching a cartoon." Proof, right there. Simon had just given away the biggest clue that he was videotaping him. The evil mastermind plan was to turn Alvin into some sort of little kiddie, comedy TV show. That's exactly what—that's what was up.

"Wait—you mean to tell me you've been _stalking _me?!" Alvin exclaimed, looking at Simon in distress. Where would the hidden camera be? _Oh!_—it was hidden on his shirt!—wait, no!—it was installed in the Brainiac's glasses! That's what! Nerd thought that he was just oh-so-clever, eh?

"Well, more like studying you. Jeanette pointed you out to me because she noticed you were…looking strange. She asked if something was wrong with you…and," he trailed his gaze over to Brittany who now was looking awfully bored out of her mind with the conversation going on, staring down at her nails, "evidently you are troubled."

Alvin's jaw gaped open. Okay…maybe there wasn't a camera…but he was still being watched! "Wha…wha…what in the world was she doing looking at _me _for?Do you have Jeanette programmed to _spy _on me or something? Does she really hate me that much?" Or, maybe _Jeanette _had the camera! Instantly his gaze averted to find the missus to Mr. Evil-brain-o-maniac.

Simon groaned, grabbing a hold of Alvin's shoulders, also catching his pair of sky blue eyes to hold still, "_No, _Alvin…Jeanette just happened to look your way when you must've been doing some odd-looking face like you always do."

"Ouch. Rude." Alvin spat, rolling Simon's hands off of his shoulders, emphasizing the crossing of his arms, since they were already crossed.

"You're welcome," Simon sarcastically muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Wait, I'm lost—I don't get it—what are you guys talking about? Is something wrong with Brittany?" Theodore chimed in, glancing over to where Brittany was.

"_No, _nothing's_ wrong _with Brittany," Alvin grudgingly muttered, his eyes faltering over to her, lingering there longer than he anticipated.

"It appears that you are doubtful with her, though," Simon inserted. "Do you not trust her, Alvin?" He crossed his arms, pursing his lips curiously.

"I don't know, Si," Alvin sarcastically proclaimed, "is she one to trust?"

"Why don't you trust Brittany?" Theodore frowned, keeping his stare glued to her like a strong magnet.

Alvin's jaw gaped open. "I never said I _didn't_ trust her!" he flailed his arms up. They didn't know the whole picture!—why were they jumping to assumptions so fast?

"Then why are you acting like this?" Simon pressed, folding his arms. Alvin blinked, clamping his open mouth shut. "Alvin, you know Brittany would never do anything like _that_ to you, right?"

"Like what, 'cheat' on me? Sleep with another man?" Alvin muttered under his breath as he glared straight ahead, placing his hands in his pockets. "You know, we're not kids anymore, Simon. You can say what you need to say. You don't need to censor it or anything."

Theodore then placed his hand on his oldest brother's shoulder. "Alvin, Brittany's not like that. I don't think she'd ever do such a thing."

_Such a thing. _Thing_. Thing._

"I side with Theodore on this: Brittany isn't the type to do something like that to you Alvin. You know that, don't you?" Simon too, placed his hand on Alvin's other shoulder.

_Do something like that. _Something. _Something. _

Why weren't any of them _saying _it? It's not like it was illegal to say…yet that's just how they were treating it. He wasn't sensitive to those words—so _why _weren't his brothers just _saying _it? Wouldn't it be much easier to say those few simple words, other than come up with a whole story just to avoid using _those _words? But then again…wasn't he avoiding those words too?

Alvin glanced between his two brothers, allowing his shoulders to sag down like a deflated balloon of helium. Yes, he knew Brittany wasn't the type to do anything like _that _to him. Yes, he trusted her. But then…what if she wasn't all that he thought she was? What if she had been secretly planning to make him fall for her and at the very end all she was going to do was take his heart away with her, and give nothing in return, leaving him empty? Maybe that was her big plan of revenge for all of the things he's ever done to her… She did have reason—there was justice to this. But she _honestly _couldn't seriously still be mad about the time he "spilled" cold water all over her when she was tanning out in the sun, right? She was in proper clothing to get wet—yet she didn't want to get wet—why dress in something meant to get wet in, but not want to get wet? He had to justify that—plus he wanted to make her mad. And she couldn't still be mad about when he changed the water pipes in the shower so that when she turned it to warm, cold water would come spurting out, right? These were simple, hilarious pranks! She really couldn't still be mad about those kinds of things…

It wasn't like Brittany's love for him was running out or anything—he was the lady's man! He is reliable for her. He's there when she needs him. Plus, he's ruggedly attractive—who _wouldn't_ want to be his love? It may not seem like it at all, and it may seem like he's just there to be some jerk to her…but he's more than simply just _there _for her. She's not a ghost to him, she's not his possession, and she's not a statue or work of art to just stare at for days on end. What he is for her is everything she wants and needs him to be.

Picking his sky blue gaze up off of the ground, Alvin looked to Brittany. Pursing his lips, he gritted his teeth and turned around, punching the tree, before walking off. His brothers could hear him grumbling bitterly under his breath about some guy named Brad and how he was going to personally wring the guy's neck off if he didn't stay away…wait, what? Simon and Theodore looked to each other, then looked over to Brittany. She was talking to a new guy. He seemed fairly younger than the other men that's approached her…he seemed to be about the age of eighteen? Seventeen…?

Simon widened his storm blue eyes and beckoned for Theodore to follow as he walked around the tree and towards Alvin. Theodore, blinking, nodded and did as his brother motioned for him to do. By the time Simon and Theodore caught up to Alvin, Simon spoke, almost in amusement, "You're jealous, aren't you?"

Alvin halted in his steps. "Jealous?" He raised his eyebrows. He knew Simon was tagged as the oh-so-smart-one, but he didn't know there was any irony that came along with the titling. "Are you seriously accusing me of being jealous?" he scoffed. "As if!" he marched on.

Simon sighed, and rolled his eyes as he matched his stride with Alvin. "Well, maybe not as much _that_, as you are _concerned._"

"'Concerned'?" Alvin rolled his eyes. "Now, why would I ever be _concerned?_" he snorted stubbornly.

"Well, because you're afraid some high schooler will be the one who will attract Brittany in a physical and mental way that you would never want to have happen. Face it, Alvin, you're too prideful for that to ever happen to you, and not only that, but you're just being protective over her. It's fine for you to feel this way. I mean, I would likewise, feel the same if I were ever put in that sort of situation."

"But you won't ever get put into this sort of situation, _Simon_," Alvin spat bitterly. "I highly doubt the whole neighborhood would ever clamor over Jeanette! No offense to her, she's great, sure, but let's face it: she's not exactly, let's say, the-whole-neighborhood-wants-to-sleep-with-her material." Alvin grimly smiled, continuing his march onward.

Simon glared at Alvin, but let it slide. Sighing, he stopped in his tracks and softly spoke, "I'm only telling you the things that you're too blind to see all because of your pride. Your pride's like a mountain Alvin; you won't always be able to see or climb over it. I hope you understand that one day."

Alvin, having heard Simon's final remarks, snickered and waved it off, muttering a simple "Whatever."

As Simon watched Alvin, he shook his head. "Sometimes I wish I could dropkick that mind of yours, Alvin…" He muttered grimly, placing his hands in his pockets.

"What was that?" Theodore suddenly came jogging next to Simon.

Simon readjusted his glasses and shook his head with a half-smile. "It's nothing, Theo, it's nothing." He followed his gaze after Alvin, his smile faltering to the depressant. "Alvin's just being…Alvin."


	4. Chapter 4

The inward tension Alvin had wasn't a sentiment he was feeling alone. Granted he stood alone with himself and his problems, but that didn't mean his feelings weren't being mirrored in a similar way. As it turned out, the Twins were having a bit of their own dilemma themselves…

It was Brad. Something was up with him. He was texting them more than usual, asking if they could hang out—which for the record: they never, hardly, ever hung out. The only times they really did was if they ever saw each other at a party, or the Twins needed an audience. But that was just about it. And it wasn't only the overdose of texting they were receiving from the guy either. He was always disappearing whenever they brought him over to their house, or were with him. He was always in some sort of daze, almost as if he was living in some sort of daydream or something. And they had an idea as to why, too. It wasn't one they were too sure they could fully support, either. Brad may have been their friend, but that didn't mean they were going to help and agree with everything he wanted. They weren't _that _close. Plus, some things just weren't appropriate…or plain right. And in this case, it was both.

"_Al!_" Alvin Jr. hissed, motioning his brother urgently over to him, managing a quick, charming smile at a few girls who passed him by as he rushed out of his class. Al Jr., who was recently coming out of a classroom across from his twin's, followed his brother urgently. As the two walked side by side in the school halls that were beginning to overflow, almost as fast as bugs crawling out of a disrupting nest, except with chattering boys and girls, glancing all around them, they then disappeared into the boy's locker room.

As they walked down the aisles of crimson red lockers, a strange smell mixed with hardworking sweat in the air, they turned down an aisle and faced each other. Alvin Jr. spoke first in a hushed voice: "I don't know about you, but something is wrong with Brad."

Al Jr. nodded, crossing his arms across his chest. "No, yeah—I totally agree with you."

"And I think I know why too…" Alvin Jr. paused, staring directly at his brother. "But I'm not sure what you'll think of it."

"I have an idea too! Umm, let's just say it at the same time since I know you won't want to say it first, and I know that I don't want to say it first… Deal?"

"Deal."

The two brothers shook hands. "Alright, on the count of three," Al Jr. started.

"One…"

"Two…"

They could feel the tension building, and for a split second, they began to question themselves whether they really wanted to say their idea first… But no. They made a deal. And that deal was going to be kept.

"Three!"

Both the boys opened their mouths as the words came out in one big crush of words: "Brad'scrushingonourmom!"

They both blinked and did a small handshake. "Dude, that was awesome!" Al Jr. exclaimed.

"I know, right? We're amazing! I could just kiss you sometimes if you weren't a boy!" Alvin Jr. clamored, finishing the handshake off with a shoulder bump and pat to the back. "And if you weren't related to me…" He quickly added with a smirk.

"Likewise, Brother," Al Jr. took a seat down on the wooden bench in the center of the aisle, which his brother copied. "So, about Brad…what do we do? I mean, he's totally doggin' Mom! And, I'm sorry, (and I'm not really actually sorry), but he can't—he and her—no! That can't happen! What about Dad? What do we do?! Do you think he knows? Do you know how awkward it'd be if Mom and Brad—"

"I don't know! Why you asking me?!"

"I don't know!"

The two brothers just looked at each other as they took in a deep breath with a grave look. "How do we tell Brad that our mom is off-limits?" Al Jr. sighed. "It's just so _wrong _in all the weirdest ways possible! How did this even happen? Do you think Mom knows?"

Alvin Jr. shook his head, biting his bottom lip. "No, I don't think she's even noticed! Which is good though, because then nothing awkward will happen to her—but it's also bad because then she won't even know what to suspect or know what's going on if Brad were ever to make a 'move.'" The two brothers froze.

"Do you think we should warn her? You know, give her a heads up? Because who knows what Brad will do…"

"Well, how about we try and confront Brad first, then if he doesn't listen, we tell Mom?" Alvin Jr. suggested, rubbing the back of his neck stressfully.

"Or we could just tell Dad…" Al Jr. implied thoughtfully. The two brothers looked to each other. They immediately shook their heads as soon as the idea came. "No—I'm actually not sure if that's a really good idea…he's been a little strange lately…do you think he already knows? Because that could explain some things…maybe not all, but it covers half of the reason as to why he's been…" He looked to his twin, unsure how to express their father's strangeness. All he could muster up was an interesting face.

"Well…"

Suddenly voices could be heard, entering into the locker room, echoing and bouncing off the walls like a ball. The Twins zipped their mouths up tight shut, and instantly stood, ushering themselves out as quick as possible. As they fast-walked out of the aisle, catching a glimpse of a few boys disappearing down three aisles from them, the brothers nodded their heads as they kept a steady pace and headed towards the exit. They'd make no eye contact, and be as swift as possible.

When they walked past the aisle where the group of boys had walked down, to their relief, they made it past the clamor and were inches away from their escape. By the time Alvin Jr. reached out to push the door open, a voice hollered after them. Immediately, the boys halted like a screeching car coming to a stop to not hit a living-being crossing the road. Holding their breaths, they glanced to each other out of their peripheral vision, keeping their heads frozen in the position they were in. _They were so close! _Their hands cringed and prickled with the urge to just at least brush against the door. Eyeing their exit, the identical boys discourteously turned on their heel only to nearly have a heart attack.

"Brad!" they both exclaimed, glancing to one another before pulling on a smiling mask.

"Hey, it is the Seville Brothers!" Brad came up to them dressed in his gym clothes. "What are you two doing here?"

The two brothers blinked. What were they doing here? Well, of course not _talking _about _him!_ Oh no…they were…what were they doing? They needed an excuse! And fast! They began punching their brains, forcing words to come sputtering out at random.

"I was—we were—"

"We were practicing—"

"Ballet!—wait, what?"

"Uh, on his phone—"

"I lost my phone!"

"Yeah, he lost his uh—"

"Phone and—"

"And we came back here—"

"—I thought I last saw it here—"

"So we came, uh, _scavenging_—"

"—and it turns out it was here!"

"Yeah! And it was, um, in his locker!"

"Exactly—and now—"

"What are you doing here?"

The two brothers inwardly high-fived each other, sighing in relief when they finally found an escape route—they were dying! Man, was that the hardest thing they've ever encountered! Normally it was so easy to come up with an excuse! But this time, it was a bit of a struggle…okay, maybe _a lot _of a struggle. But what could they say? They were practically stunned when Brad popped out of nowhere! What _was _he doing here anyways? He didn't have P.E. this last class period—in fact he didn't have P.E. at all!

"Whoa," Brad blinked. "Well, I was with my buddies working on weights." A smile flashed across his face, his dirty-blonde hair dripping with sweat. The Twins exchanged glances, their blue eyes reflecting off of one another's, sending code messages. "So, let me get this straight: One of you lost your cell phone, and you just came back here looking for it?" Hearing this astounded the Twins. Wow. Despite how dumb and stupid Brad was (he really was) with his school work, and comprehension of words coming out of their teachers' mouths, he actually was able to translate the nonsense the Twins spoke! Maybe they didn't give him enough credit than he got from them. But then, that's when they remembered he was in love with their mom. Yup. The guy really was delirious and stupid.

"Ye-yeah!" Alvin Jr. abruptly nodded his head, trying to keep his facial expressions in place.

"Oh, that's cool, that's cool…" Brad began nodding his head, crossing his arms. "Oh, hey, um, for an assignment, I need to interview a few adults, and I was wondering if it'd be chill if I could come over and interview your guys' mom? Is that okay?"

The Twins shared a look. _NO. _Of course that wasn't okay! "Yeah, yeah, dude—that's fine!" they both clamored. "Totally! Come over! Yeah!" They finally shut their mouths up wishing they could pick something up and throw it across the room. What were they doing? This was _not _okay! No way! Not in a million years! They needed to super glue their lips or something! This was definitely not an okay thing. They were in so much trouble. What were they going to do? They practically led Brad through an open gate! They let him in and now they needed to find a way to lock him back out…

Brad grinned widely with a glint to his brown eyes. "Great! So, I'll be coming right after school probably…" The Twins nodded their heads. "Well, anyway, see you later!—I've got to get changing." And he left.

Alvin and Al Jr. looked to each other and immediately turned around and shoved each other out the door, escaping the mouth to the Underworld. They wanted to get out as soon as possible just in case Brad had any last remarks he wanted to add on to his torture to the Twins. The two boys really didn't know what they were going to do. They needed to do something! And fast. Well, at least before Brad came over…who knows what this "interview" meant.

By the time the two boys had walked out of their high school building, for they were on their lunch break, they headed out to a nearby park across the street. This public area was ghostly; the only sounds that could be heard were the chirping of birds, hiding in trees that spread out a large, overcasting dark shadow, covering where the sunlight hit the park, leaving only small splattered blotches of the warm light. Sighing, the two approached a playground and took a seat on a pair of black seated swings. They wanted to be secluded from everyone else at the moment, and this open park was the only candidate at the moment. For a while, the silence of words was all they could hear. Not one of them could utter one word, too engulfed on their own thoughts, trying to come up with a plan. Al Jr. finally broke the silence.

"We've got to warn Mom." It came out as simple as it sounded, and it was agreed on as soon as it was put out there on their table of options. They didn't have much of an option anyway, considering that that was their only option they had so far on their table, and that was the only option they could come up with.

What they weren't expecting, though, from this option was that it was easier said than done. All they had to do was tell their mom something about Brad—it's not like they did anything bad or that they wanted to protect Brad, because they really didn't care that much about him, so this plan of theirs should've been an easy, accomplishable mission. So what would or could make this plan blow up in their faces?

When the final school bell had rung, releasing all of the boys and girls that were locked up in the dungeon of being tortured to learn and stuff their brains full of information, the two brothers booked it out of that prison. It was a race. They had to beat Brad before he arrived at their house. They just had to. This was a life or death situation! They _needed_ to hurry.


	5. Chapter 5

Brittany sighed heavily as she began sliding hanger after hanger down a silver pole, examining each dress up and down with a frown. _Too ugly. _She slid the hanger down. _Too much green. _She slid the next hanger down. _Too many sparkles. _She slid the next hanger down. _Too short. _She slid the next hanger down. Her frown deepened. _Ew…yuck… Too much flare. And ruffles. _

She nearly tossed the rack of dresses over, but kept her poise. She was in public at one of her favorite stores—she had a reputation. She just needed to…breathe…well, really all she wanted to do was strangle whoever designed these dresses she was looking at, but breathing was helpful too…somewhat. Brittany exhaled out deeply with a grim look. What in the world was she doing again? Ah, that's right: She was shopping her annoyance away and buying a new dress for the big parade that was happening tonight! Money really does bring happiness! Because that way she can do the number one thing she absolutely _loves! _And when she's doing the number one things she loves, she's happy; therefore, money really does bring happiness because without it she wouldn't be able to buy anything and she'd be a miserable soul for the rest of her life—seriously though, this was no exaggeration.

She huffed out a breath of air as she moved on to a new rack, looking through the pastel colored dresses. What exactly was she annoyed at anyway? That was half of the reason as to why she was shopping, so what was eating her heart out? Nothing. Nothing was bugging her. That was just it. Nothing was getting on her nerves. In fact, for a while now, nothing's poked, spilled, played, pranked, hit, pushed, pressed, or done _anything _to her. She's been at complete peace. But she needed to be at war. Well, at least have _something _to fight about. But nothing. She's had absolutely _nothing_. In fact, she's been bored out of her mind with all of this peace and quiet. Why were things so…ugh…_peaceful?_ She never thought she'd see the day where she actually _didn't_ want to live in her small fantasy world of stillness.

It just wasn't feeling right. It's been a little too passive for her lately and it's driving her almost to the brink of insanity. She's been missing something, but what exactly was that? The sentiment she was feeling was much like suddenly walking through a doorway and forgetting in that instant second of what was wanted to be said. She was so frustrated. But over _what? _It couldn't be Time, it couldn't be Love, it most definitely wasn't Death… Was it perhaps the fact that War had left out of her life? Were the Stills overflowing her terrain too much?

"Have you picked out a dress, yet?" Eleanor suddenly came over, her brown eyes glistening with tedium. Both she and Jeanette had agreed to come along with Brittany on her little shopping spree, but what they forgot was how much time she took. Was it an hour per dress? Or five hours per store? They lost track of Brittany's shopping pattern… They figured out their oldest sister had a time limit for certain things during certain times. They used to know what it was…but it's been so long, it's completely slipped their minds… Maybe it was two hours per dress in the summer? Ugh…if only they could remember they'd have known what to expect…

Brittany glared her blazing ice cold blue eyes at her baby sister. "_No,_" she sneered, "I can't find the perfect dress! So far they've just been _anything _but perfect! I need to find the perfect dress, Eleanor! If you want me to be faster, then why haven't you been helping? Hello? A little help may be just a little bit _dandy_, you know?"

"Well how was I supposed to know? You never said anything!" Eleanor snapped, turning towards a rack of dresses and going through each of them.

Brittany rolled her eyes. She shouldn't _need _to say anything. Muttering, she asked, "Where'd Jeanette go?"

Eleanor responded with a sigh of, "She said she needed something to drink…so I think she went to find a drinking fountain or something…"

Brittany nodded her head glumly. She needed to find a dress… She already bought sunglasses, she already had the shoes, she already had the swimwear, and she even had the essential accessories and jewelry…now all she needed was the _dress. _She needed just one more thing. Then she'd have the shopper's satisfying grin. But all she could muster at the moment was the frown of distress. Why was it taking forever to find the perfect dress?

"Hey, um, girls?" Jeanette suddenly came up from behind the two. Brittany and Eleanor turned their heads, each sharing the complete opposite expression, Eleanor's being the more cheery, pleasant facial. "Simon just called and said that he and his brothers were going to be meeting up with us."

As if a triggered were pulled, Brittany's eyes widened and her head snapped like a breaking bone back to the racks of dresses. Quickly rummaging through each piece of clothing, she spotted Eleanor's hand on a dress, frozen in place as the youngest of the three spoke to Jeanette. Blinking, a small smile sketched its way up Brittany's smooth lips and she grabbed the dress, scanning it over with a satisfying smile. Nodding her head silently, she rushed over to the cash register and finalized her purchase. There was no need for trying on the dress (she knew what size she fit anyway for this store), and she didn't have the time to admire how the dress looked. Before she had a chance to escape out the store, though, her two sisters called out to her with curious looks.

"Where are you going?" Eleanor hollered out while beginning to weave her way through the racks of clothing, Jeanette following right behind her.

Brittany looked around, on the alert like a guard dog. "Home," she answered, readjusting her shopping bags that were beginning to weigh down like a ton a bricks on her arm, before heading out the store.

Both Eleanor and Jeanette blinked. "What? Why?" Jeanette timidly asked, hesitantly trailing after her sister. "Do you have something you need to do?"

"Not exactly anything in particular," Brittany muttered slowly, pulling off her sunglasses that had been hanging on the neck of her shirt and placing them on her head. She really didn't have anything to do at her home...but she really didn't want to stay around here either.

"Then why won't you stay?" Eleanor joined in the conversation, catching up to Brittany and abruptly stepping in front of her tracks.

"Because I have better things to do at home," Brittany insisted, stepping around the roadblock in front of her. In truth, she really didn't feel comfortable being around Alvin. Well, it was more that he hardly gave her any attention, which made her somehow feel like a loner and a fool. So, in short: she didn't really want to feel like the odd man out. Well, _woman_…

"Are you sure?" Jeanette called out to her, gradually coming to a stop while someone walking behind her collided shoulders with her roughly. The man didn't even bother to apologize or turn around. He just coughed violently saying something about hay fever and how much he hated it… The timid girl stumbled forward, her left hand shooting up to her hit shoulder, instantly forgiving the man, smiling politely at him as he walked away. He was probably having a bad day. Rubbing her shoulder soothingly, her hand slowly slid down her arm and to her elbow, the smile gracing her lips slipping away from her grasp.

"Yes!" Brittany exasperatedly stated, not bothering to even look behind her. Sheesh, her sisters could be so naggy…they were like plastic attracted to static electricity. No matter how many times she tried to push them away, they would come sticking back to her—and it was _very_ annoying.

As Eleanor approached Jeanette with a soft smile, asking if she was okay from the hit and receiving a genuine "I'm okay," the two trailed their gazes after their sister. Eleanor nudged Jeanette lightly. "C'mon," she motioned, grabbing Jeanette's arm lightly. "She's probably just mad at Alvin or something…" Eleanor could only conclude. After all, Alvin was the only living man alive that really got Brittany upset. Like _really _upset. He was practically the puppeteer and she the mannequin. He controlled every single aspect in her life all with a simple flood of obscene words. That's all it took. One devious smirk sketched across his face was the trigger, and in two seconds flat, Brittany would be on a rampant out for the kill.

"Let's not mention anything to Alvin, though," Eleanor glanced quickly behind her, as Jeanette nodded her head, "Theodore told me to go easy on him and not bring anything up about Brittany earlier today. He seemed really concerned." Her face fell a little, but she composed her expression. "Has Simon said anything?"

Jeanette shook her head, her loose strands of brown hair from her bun gliding along the air. "No…he hasn't said anything much about him…" She paused, thinking through her past memories. She didn't remember anything…except at that one barbeque… She gasped silently, blinking her emerald eyes thoughtfully as she watched the street lights up ahead turn green. Wait…but maybe what she was thinking was wrong…

"Eleanor!" a voice chirped happily from some distance ahead. Both the girls whipped their heads to the source of the voice. There they saw the boys heading their way to them. Jeanette couldn't help but grin softly, after having seen a small smug grin given to her.

When the boys were no further than a few feet away, Simon abruptly asked, "Where's Brittany?"

Jeanette began to answer but Alvin cut her off with a sneer of, "She's probably just shopping in that store right there—she _always _shops there…" He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "And she always takes five years to pick what she wants," he added sarcastically, allowing his eyes that should've been up in the sky, fall to the ground.

"Actually…" Jeanette began, edging in her steps, rubbing the side of her arm. This lifted Alvin's head slightly. "She…she left…" she silently ended, biting her bottom lip.

"Oh…she did…?" Alvin muttered, hiding his hands in his designer jean pockets. He didn't want to show his disappointment, but that was kind of hard, considering things _have _been a bit…_awkward _around Brittany lately. She was slipping away, he knew that, and he didn't know how to key her back into his life.

"Okay!" Eleanor brightened, taking the spotlight Alvin normally would've prized, off of him to respect his own dignity. "So, should we go get something to eat?"

"Oh!" Theodore grinned happily. "Can we go eat? Sorry, but…I'm starving!"

The group all shared smiles with one another except for Alvin, who kept his head hung low, his sky blue eyes staring harshly at the ground. "I don't see why not," Simon inputted, "I am a bit famished myself—I don't know about you guys…girls…I mean ladies…" He sheepishly smiled, readjusting his black framed glasses. Jeanette's grin widened and she nodded her head, making eye contact with Simon who merely dropped his head a little, scratching the back of his neck, barely managing to glance up at her without seeming shaded in the face.

Eleanor grinned and set the group off into destination. "Okay, well, let's go then! I'm hungry too! Let's eat before we all drop dead." Everyone nodded their heads and walked with their counterpart, whether it was chatting happily and openly, or exchanging gentle conversations passed like secret love notes. Everyone except Alvin, that is. He had no one to walk beside him. There should've been another presence of sweet-talking cruel words that led to heated arguments. But that was missing and instead replaced with a silent shadow of distress.

Alvin merely walked with watching eyes at his brothers and their counterparts. As much as he hated to admit this to himself, he just couldn't hold it in anymore. The bars that locked his guarded heart up were shattering like frozen ice. Before his pride and dignity could catch the word that escaped his heart like a jail-breaker, it was already too late… The poisonous word had contaminated his mind like a spreading virus. His mind was drowning in it. _He was_ _envious. _And the next thing he knew, everything he ever locked up began to break loose. His ego, pride, self-esteem—everything that built him up on the tower he lived in, everything that guarded him and fought off every battle he ever faced, all came crashing down. His mind and heart were getting captured—taken prison…

And the words and emotions that were once safely locked away began to take over his mind.

_Doubt._

_Jealously._

_Concern._

_Hesitation._

_Bitterness._

_Unease._

_Discomfort._

_Agitation._

_Resent._

The last word that held the trigger, straight at his heart…_fear._


	6. Chapter 6

Bursting through the front door to their home like a storm, Alvin and Al Jr. called out to their mom, heart racing like a jet stream. Immediately, the two rushed up and down the stairs, continuing with their calling, every now and then pausing for the silence to answer them in return. Where was she?! Finally coming to an agreement that they should split up, one went up while the other went down. They thoroughly opened and checked every single room and door they could open—heck, they were even checking the closets! By the time the two brothers finally met back up, their stomping feet and calling voices echoing throughout their house like a bunch of dead memories, their exasperated faces was all that was needed for them to say everything on their minds.

"Well," Al Jr. began, rubbing the back of his neck, "I guess this is a good thing…right? Because now Brad won't be able to do his interview-thing with Mom, right?"

Alvin Jr. bit his bottom lip, slowly nodding his head. "Yeah…but what are the chances that Mom will just so happen to come home around the time Brad decides to show up?"

The two brothers shared a distressed look. Even though the excitement of pure horror began to settle within their pounding hearts, they still felt a sense of adrenaline run throughout their bodies. They needed to _do _something… Time was ticking. And it was ticking so fast. They were running out of time. What were they going to do? Why didn't they have a Plan B? Plan A was obviously out the door…what now? The Twins began to communicate with their blazing blue eyes, signaling to one another like a radio communicator.

Suddenly they heard the sound of their garage opening—or maybe it was closing…they couldn't tell. In the blink of an eye, just like that, they were already on the move. Whether it was their mom or dad—they had no clue—but all they were hoping was that if it was their mom, they'd get to her first before…before…

Their hearts nearly stopped at the sound of two voices chattering with one another.

"An _interview?"_

"Yeah, it's for a homework assignment from school."

"And…why are you asking me again?"

"Well, because you seem like an interesting woman and I wanted to have a variety of different types of women."

"Uh-huh…right…" They heard a familiar sigh. She was giving in. They were too late… "Well, I guess an interview wouldn't hurt; I mean, I haven't had one since I got married to, uh, Alvin… But you say this was for school…? Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt…" They could hear the voices fading. Brad and their mom were probably going into the living room…or maybe it was outside…but then maybe it was in the sunroom… Okay, they really weren't sure. Their home was sometimes a maze for sound to travel through.

"What do we do?" Al Jr. gritted, as the two slowly began to creep down the stairs like a careful deer stepping over debris from a forest fire. "He seriously _beat _us! Even when we got here first!" he hissed in a hushed tone. Man was their luck really shining out brightly…

As the Twins had finally crept their way all the way down to the bottom of the stairs, they began to hear muffled voices breaking through a nearby barrier. Cautiously following to the source, they found themselves placing their ears up against the wall that separated them from the living room. Slowly, they moved along the wall and to the open entrance, peaking through the open way. Fully revealing their bodies out in the open, they found nothing; not a single trace of their mom or Brad could be seen. So where were the voices coming from?

Suddenly they heard the sound of a sticker getting peeled off echo to their ears. They recognized that sound. Someone was coming in from the garage door. Instantly both the Twins went into flight mode, having a panic-attack. "Go over there!" one of them would say, while the other would quickly say, "Wait, over there!" The other one would shake his head, "How about upstairs?" Only to get retorted with, "Under here!"

It took much longer than it should've, but due to their time limit, the two brothers finally were able to make up their minds and the next thing they knew, one was sitting on top of the others shoulder with a bunch of expensive coats and jackets all up in his face. They were in a closet. That was the closest thing near them and inconveniently this closet wasn't meant for two people to stand side by side with each other in it… In fact, this was probably the smallest closet in their house.

Granted it wasn't too necessary for the Twins to stay a secret and hide, but at the moment and time, it seemed pretty mandatory.

"Would you stop messing around with those coats?" Alvin Jr. hissed, feeling his brother's weight shift on his shoulders constantly.

"What? How would you feel if a bunch of fuzzy-fuzzes were all up your nose? And not to mention a bunch of coat sleeves never leaving your face no matter how many times you swat them away?" Alvin Jr. kept silent with nothing much to say to that. "Exactly," Al Jr. crossed his arms, before quickly swatting and shoving away all of the coats he could. His arms were beginning to get tired from the crowd of persistent empty sleeved arms. Gosh, this was a living nightmare! This could possibly, legitimately become a phobia for him.

"_Shhhh!_" his twin hushed. "Someone's coming!"

Immediately, a thick silence laid a blanket over the boys. While they held their breaths, every bone and muscle in their body hardening at the intensity making them turn into stone, footsteps could be heard and a shadow appeared under the doorway. Someone sighed heavily, almost frustrated, and the next thing the Twins knew, broad daylight was flashing into their hiding spot. Whoever was outside of the door had opened up the gates to their hiding spot. Great…that was absolutely just…peachy. But despite their hiding spot getting revealed, they remained statues, still holding their breaths with a bit of hope. Maybe their luck would kick in and save the day…ha, yeah, that was unlikely. Clearly their luck has been helping them throughout the day just oh-so-much! _Not._

But to Alvin and Al Jr.s' surprise, no one called them out. Huh… Oh, well _now _their luck was being a good ol' chap and helping them out…_sheesh_... As the two boys stared down at the familiar pair of red and white Nike sports shoe, by the time realization hit them, the door was shut. The boys continued to hold their breaths, and watched as the shadow walked away, almost in a rush. Hearing a clashing of breaking glass sound off from a ring of keys clanging against one another, the slam of a door then was heard, kicking out the sounds. Within a few seconds, a loud chugging of a motor sounded off followed right after a rippling noise of an engine barely getting heated up and started. Eventually the loud noises zoomed off, and began to fade to a gently silence of soft waves.

As if on cue, the Twins scrambled out of the closet gasping for air, Al Jr. toppling over, face first, smashing into the wooded ground, his brother having the same fate. With Al Jr.'s hand atop of the inside doorknob still, and his brother crushing his legs, he managed to grudgingly pull himself up to his feet, his kneecaps sore from the sudden fall. Alvin Jr. merely groaned, slowly lifting himself off of the ground like a he just ran a whole marathon of pure, full out, nonstop running.

"Ow…ow…ow…" Alvin Jr. grunted, feeling suddenly like an elderly man. "I think I broke my nose…" He lightly touched his burning nose. "Oh, my poor baby…ow…ow…"

"Ha, I think I nearly tore my arm off!" Al Jr. rubbed his left shoulder all around, finally releasing the doorknob his hand somehow had glued itself to. "And not to mention you just about crushed my knees! Now they're probably bruised!" he whined, leaving one hand to comfort his aching shoulder, while his other went down to care to his bruising knees.

"Hey, but if you think about it, our injuries are like battle scars!" Alvin Jr. lightened, contemplated with the thought. The ladies would sure have a kick out of that…and of course all of the guys! Now all the two boys had to do was come up with some believable, grand-sounding story! Maybe they could say they pushed an old lady out of a speeding car… Or they could say they saved a child from a burning house! Oh!—but then they could say they totally rocked it out hardcore while performing with their band! Now that would be pretty believable…

While the two boys recovered, taking in deep breaths to ease the pain, Al Jr. began, "Was that Dad who opened the door?"

Alvin Jr. paused, his brain barely registering the words coming out of his brother's mouth. By the time his mind ran through the gibberish words and had successfully translated them, he nodded his head. "Yeah—I'm pretty sure that was—what do you think he was doing? Did he even _see _us?"

Rolling his shoulders, stretching them out, Al Jr. pursed his lips. "I'm not sure," he mumbled. "But hey, what do you think he grabbed out of the closet? It definitely wasn't a jacket…"

"Maybe he didn't take anything," Alvin Jr. shrugged, turning to peer inside of their hiding place. As his mind did a memory scan of the closet, comparing the image he had in his mind to the actual picture in front of him, he blinked his eyes._Bingo. _Pointing his finger up to the top shelf, he stated, "His helmet's gone." Al Jr. peered inside of the closet, finding the empty spot in the upper right corner of the small space. "Right! No duh," Alvin Jr. face-palmed his forehead. "We heard him take his motorcycle."

"That's right…" Al Jr. crossed his arms. "Where do you think he went?" But before the other twin could answer, they could hear their mom's voice fade in louder. Both of the boys' eyes widened to the size of the moon. "Quick! Back into the closet!" Al Jr. ushered, practically throwing Alvin Jr. into the small space.

"Hey! Watch it!" Alvin Jr. complained as his brother climbed back on top of his shoulders, dragging the door shut with him. "_Al…_" He growled, trying to allow his brother's weight to come to an agreement with his shoulders and neck. While the two brothers squirmed, both trying to get equally comfortable, they immediately froze at the sound of rapping heels, and their mom's voice harmonizing with the beat of her shoes.

"So, that's it, right?" their mom spoke eagerly.

"Yup," Brad's voice of…victory, was it? "That's it. Well, I better be on my way… Hey, um, will I see you at the parade tonight?"

"Uh, I don't know…maybe."

"Are you not going?"

"Huh, what? Oh, yeah—yes, I am."

"Great! Well, see you later Brittany!" A pair of shoes hitting the wooded floor softly began to fade away, followed slowly by a pair of clacking heels.

After some time, the clicking of heels came echoing back. The Twins nodded their heads, coming to a silent agreement with one another, speaking through taps of each other's hand and hissed whispers. On the count of three, they would reveal themselves.

_One…_

_Two…_

_Three!_

Al Jr.'s hand shot out to the doorknob and swung it open. Prepared and more practiced this time, the boys shuffled out of the closet in an orderly fashion, and quickly composed their clothing and figures while silently shutting the closet door. As they turned around, they found their mom standing with her back to them, by a nearby window with her arms crossed. Looking to one another, unsure of how to break the silence, they finally agreed through much inaudible bickering. Nodding their heads, Alvin Jr. stepped forward causing the wood to creak under his weight. Cringing his shoulders, the hairs on the back of his neck rising, he stared at his mom. Okay…here it goes…


	7. Chapter 7

"Mom?"

Brittany jumped, whipping around, about ready to chew on the tip of her thumb nail. "Hm?" There standing before her were her two boys. Instantly a second later, she realized how close she was to actually chewing on her nail. At the speed of lightning, she stuffed her thumb away, tucked safely beneath her crossing arms.

Alvin Jr. opened his mouth, but froze on the spot.

Brittany blinked, stepping closer to her boys. "Yes…?"

Suddenly Al Jr. clasped his hands together with a loud_ clap _echoing throughout the house, causing Alvin Jr. to straighten and compose himself. Walking over to his brother who was clearing his throat sheepishly, he smacked his hand on the back of his twin's shoulder harshly, disguising the act as a "friendly-brotherly pat." He smiled brightly over at Brittany for a few seconds before glancing to Alvin Jr. with vague, curious eyes.

"Mom," Alvin Jr. chuckled sheepishly, "we—" he returned the "friendly-brotherly pat" to his brother "—wanted to tell you something. Uh," he chuckled some more, looking to Al Jr. "Al, would you do the privileges?"

Al Jr. plastered his most convincing smile on his face as he gritted gleefully, "Sure thing, Bro—I got your back." He returned another one of those "friendly-brotherly pats" to his brother. Things were going downhill for them today. "What Alvin couldn't say, is that we need to tell you something…"

Brittany cocked one of her strict eyebrows. Didn't the other twin already say that? What was going on? Why were they so nervous?

Alvin Jr. elbowed Al Jr., directly grinding words out for only his brother's ears, "I already said that, Mr. This-is-a-piece-of-cake! It's harder than it looks, huh?"

Al Jr. motionlessly nodded his head to comment on his brother's remark. "So it seems," he gritted lowly.

"Okay, spit it out," Brittany sighed. "Please don't tell me you broke the neighbor's window _again_ from playing football! Or was it baseball? Boys," she groaned loudly. They probably did do something of the sort… Ugh, she really didn't want to have to pay for another window! And it wasn't the fact that it would cost a fair amount of money, it was the fact that she really didn't like these neighbors and didn't want to have to pay for something for them!

The Twins laughed halfheartedly, glancing between one another. If only it was like that… "No, actually, not that, this time around—it's something a lot more…out..of..the…ordinary…" Alvin Jr. slowly spoke, choosing his words cautiously. He barely managed a genuine smile without appearing strange.

Brittany let out a sigh of relief, looking up to the ceiling. "Thank goodness," she muttered under her breath. Peering down at her boys, now interested, yet also deciding whether or not she should be scared, she asked, "So…what, then?" She could only think of a thousand things that the Twins were about to tell her…a thousand wasn't even that much…there weren't that many possibilities that were _that_ bad…right? She really needed to get a hold of herself—she was falling back into that fantasy world of hers again. She didn't want that fantasy world—didn't she already establish that? So why did she keep falling back into that world of hers? It wasn't one that she wanted…she now knew that.

"Uh, it's about Brad…." Al Jr. rubbed the back of his neck, biting his bottom lip. He glanced to his other half expectantly.

Alvin Jr. glared flames at his mirror image, a grim smirk curling upon his lips. "Yes, it's about…_Brad_..." He clicked his tongue before averting his gaze to who he was really talking to. Brittany stared firmly, slightly leaning in, waiting with the most patience she could muster up. The past few weeks have been really long, and her patience has been draining out on her.

"Brad," he began, clasping his hands together. "Oh boy…what about Brad…" Alvin Jr.'s smile wavered a little, and he looked to his brother with uncertain eyes. This shouldn't have been a hard thing to talk about…but it felt really awkward and weird to have to say it. This was definitely a foreign thing to the two brothers…and they'd prefer to keep it foreign to them, if they knew how to work time traveling.

Sighing, Alvin Jr. slowly began to speak, approaching his main topic like a predator. "Brad…he's got emotions…" He looked to his twin, finding it a lot easier to not have eye contact with Brittany and speak at the same time. "Fairly…strong emotions…"

"And…?" Brittany raised her eyebrows, leaning in to her left leg.

"And…the emotions are…how do I put this…for you…?" Alvin Jr. finally tore his gaze back up to Brittany.

"For…me?" she blinked. Wait, what? What were they talking about? As Brittany's mind began to put one and one together, she looked to her boys with petrified eyes. "What?! You mean he's got a…_thing _for me?!" She was flattered that someone that much younger was chasing after her—but that didn't mean a thing to her, and it didn't matter because it mostly actually freaked her out a bit. But how did she not know that the Twins weren't trying to trick her, or play some sort of prank on her? Did Alvin by any chance have anything to do with this?

Al Jr. shrugged his shoulders. "More or less, yeah…"

"Well, actually," Alvin Jr. began, not as uncomfortable speaking the truth anymore now that it was already put out there, "it's more like in love with you."

Hearing this only contorted Brittany's face. _Love? _She's got to be deaf. She needs to go to a doctor. She needs to wake up. That's it: she's dreaming. She's stuck in a terrible nightmare—that's why Alvin has been acting so weird! Because none of this was real! Wow…she's been stuck in a dream that lasted for practically a whole month?—because Alvin started acting weird a few weeks ago… Maybe she's falling back into that fantasy world of hers again—but this world of hers was redesigned. It'd be nice if she was dreaming. If only it was so…

She looked to Alvin and Al Jr., waiting to see if they'd break. Anything. Having them start to burst out into laughter would really be a comfort at the moment—even though she'd probably get raging mad… That was better than feeling the way she felt now. A small spark, a small ignition, was pricking at the back of her heart and mind, lighting up a trail of fire. She could feel it spread throughout her veins, triggering her nervous system. She could feel a small intensity grip at her heartstrings as the reality of her situation sunk in. How exactly was she supposed to handle this?

"You're not kidding," she tried to humor herself by laughing lightly, "are you…" She watched with distress as her two sons shook their heads, explaining to her that they wished they were kidding. She pursed her lips. Okay: She was going to have to talk to Brad about this and tell him how this was not okay. It would be as simple and plain as that. She did not care if she broke his teenage little heart because that's his fault for not seeing that she wasn't interested, clearly. Her ice blue gaze quickly examined Alvin and Al Jr.'s eyes. "You're not lying by any chance, right? Because if this is all a big joke, I'm grounding you boys for eternity from your video games," she began counting off from her fingers sternly, "from playing football, and from ever playing your guitars ever again. Oh, and I may just ban you from your boys' room. Okay?" She looked between the two identical brothers with a fierce mask.

Alvin and Al Jr. widened their eyes. "No! We're really telling you the truth!" the two clamored. "We promise!"

Brittany narrowed her eyes. "How do you boys know this anyways…? Did he tell you?"

The Twins blinked and passed blue to blue through their gaze. No…they didn't ask…how did they even come to this conclusion again? Alvin Jr. shook his head and countered, "No, but we figured it out on our own! Please! You have to believe us!" They ran up to her, one taking hold of her hand, the other kneeling and taking her other hand. Brittany blinked as their words echoed throughout her mind, bringing back distant memories. She could've sworn she's heard this same exact voice beg like this before…

Glancing between her two boys, she pursed her lips. Well, they looked pretty sincere…sincere enough to even make someone like her believe it. Maybe she could bring reason into this to convince herself a little more. The Twins didn't have evidence…however, there were actually enough clues for herself. This would explain why she's been seeing Brad a little more than she averagely should have. This would also explain the close proximity he's been getting with her lately too… She always thought that was just a weird perk about him.

She peered down at her two sons, luring her in with their puppy dog eyes.

And then there was Alvin… What a part of this was there to explain about him? Was there even any? She dropped her gaze. Did he by any chance notice this, too? Did he know all about Brad? Her gaze snapped sharply up. The jerk of a husband did notice this! He totally did! That would explain everything! Okay, maybe not everything, because wouldn't he just confront her about this like he does with everything else? No, no…wait, yes…but then no… She grinded her teeth. She was going to have a little chitchat with that Seville-punk—whether or not his abnormal atrocity was because of this or not. He wasn't acting normal, it was as plain as glass. Either way, she was talking with him; she didn't know why she never even confronted to him about this earlier. Why did she wait so long?

Brittany looked back down to her boys. Chewing her bottom lip, she simply sighed, "Alright. I believe you."

Large grins stretched across the two brothers' faces. "Yes! Thank you!" Al Jr. exclaimed, releasing her hand while Alvin Jr. released her other hand as well, taking a stand from kneeling down. "I was beginning to worry you wouldn't believe us!"

"Yeah, what he said." Alvin Jr. composed himself, readjusting his red cap atop his head a little.

"What, should I not have believed you boys?" Brittany challenged, narrowing her eyes.

The two brothers looked to each other, both denying, "No! No! You should have! It's a good thing! We promise we're not playing some sort of joke!" The brothers froze and glanced to each other.

"Wait, are we?" Al Jr. glanced to his twin.

"No! We're not!" Alvin Jr. hissed.

Slowly the two boys looked over to Brittany who had raised her eyebrows. They widened their eyes. Great! They were making things worse! They needed to evacuate before their successful achievement reversed on them.

"See you at the parade, Mom!" Alvin Jr. tugged his brother's arm along with him.

"Uh, yeah! See you at the parade…" Al Jr. slowly began to catch on.

"We promise: This really isn't some joke!"

"It really isn't—please still believe us."

"Yeah, really! Believe us! Please?"

"We love you! See you—!" Al Jr. barely finished his last comment as Alvin Jr. yanked him out of the room.

Soon followed after their presence had left, their voices could be heard, echoing throughout the house: "Go, go, go! Run!" one had hollered. "Hurry!" another followed right after. Suddenly the sound of the front door banging closed could be heard. They were out the door.

Brittany rolled her eyes, turning around. Taking a quick glance up at the nearby clock, she could only snicker. The parade wasn't going to start until 7:00—it was 3:11. What exactly were the Twins planning on doing with that much time to spare? She heaved out a sigh as she eluded her eyes back to the window she originally had been staring out. A small smirk lightened her mood as she watched her two boys run down the street. They probably would go over to Jeanette's place…or Eleanor's place… Either way, they'd probably stay clear of her until she got done what she needed to get done; if that is, their words spoke truth. Time would only tell her tonight…yet it had to be a brat and take its sweet, sweet time for the hours to pass her by. She had quite a bit of time to burn for her own thoughts.


	8. Chapter 8

It was already half an hour into the parade, and here he was looking for who? Yeah, he barely even had the personage, let alone the outline, of who he was searching for in his mind. He barely even knew what he was doing anymore. As his sky blue eyes trailed through the loud, fast-motioned crowd, and pumping, blasting music that could probably bust an eardrum if it ever got too close of a range to the ears, his face contorted and he blinked. What was he doing again?

Alvin groaned, taking a moment to zone out the outside world, in order to reach his inside thoughts. He originally was trying to look for Brittany…but then he changed to trying to find his brothers…but then he changed to trying to find Brad…and then he changed to trying to find Brad's _parents_…and then he changed to…finding Brittany. Back to round one. He'd probably continue this cycle he'd created if he didn't believe that Brittany was his absolute, first priority. He was going to stick to finding her. He was ready. It was about time they spoke. He wasn't going to seriously _shy _away—this time he was just going to be honest. It would be as simple as that.

As he allowed the world around him to close in and enter its music back into his body, he began moving once more, squeezing his way through the crazed crowd. The vibrant colors that glimmered and flared from the parade definitely could've caught a pilot's attention from an airplane's view in the sky. The East Coast all the way to London and Paris would've heard the beat of the music. The crowd's cheering could've easily surpassed the shot heard round the world. And the high spirits and atmosphere would've been enough to have tempted even the most innocent and composed of minds to go wild.

This parade could've easily distracted Alvin's mind. It should've attracted his mind. But since he was already going insane, he didn't find any need to act any different than to how he's been lately. More than a thousand things were passing straight through his mind, yet out of all of those thoughts, only one he hung onto. His insanity really was getting the best of him…it was practically amplifying everything around him. It was destroying everything he ever built as barrier—it was eating him up alive.

With Fear still holding the trigger to his heart, and Insanity slowly devouring his identity, he fought his way through the crowd, dodging each roadblock that ever got in his way. After he nearly ran into two light poles, hallucinated two girls as Brittany, and crashed into five people accidentally of whom two of the people had serious temper issues, he managed to find himself in the center of an empty space of the local park. People still surrounded him all around—there was just a little more space around him, and more room to breathe to where he stood in the massive crowd.

Wiping the sweat that began to bead on his brow, Alvin sucked in the thick warm air. Keeping his eyes alert, he began to walk backwards, and as he turned around, he ran into the shoulder of another man. "Whoa, sorry," he began, ready to walk off on his way, but he froze. As he stared at the blonde-haired man that stood in front of him, he had to do a double take. Blinking with wide eyes, he clenched his fists and pulled together the most genuine smile he could manage at the moment, without feeling the urge to start a riot.

"Alvin?" the blonde-haired man smirked. "Long time, no see, eh?"

Alvin returned the smile, overlaid with the essence of his grimness. "Well, well, well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?" he sarcastically spoke, yet his newfound company didn't seem to catch on.

"How's the life been goin'? How's your family? Are things going smoothly?"

Alvin's eyebrow twitched and he began to crack his knuckles in order to keep his hands busy. "I don't know, _Bart," _he practically spat the name out, "tell me, how's your son?"

"My son? Oh, Brad's doing great, man—"

"Does he have any crushes? Girlfriends?" Alvin pressed in, seeming as casual as possible.

Bart had to reflect about this. After a few moments of thinking, he brightened, "Yes, actually he has this giant crush—"

"Oh, and do you by any chance know this girl's name?" Alvin once again, pressed in.

"Oh, yeah!—and this is kind of funny how I'm here talking about this with you, because Brad's told me he's got competition for this girl." Alvin pursed his lips, feeling pressure to his heartstrings. "His competitor's name is Alvin. How funny is that, right? Oh, and catch this—the girl's name is: Brittany! What a coincidence, eh?"

Slowly nodding his head, Alvin placed a hand on Bart's shoulder, locking his gaze. "Actually, this is no coincidence, Bart. This is my life that you're talking about. This 'Brittany' your kid has a revolting crush on is my wife. The missus to my last name, Seville, yeah that's Brittany," he darkly spoke, matter-of-factly, with a light chuckle. He figured Brad would be an adult, and handle this in a fairly mature manner, because everyone knew how wrong it was to be hitting on someone else's wife, especially when the man who's got the crush is a thousand years younger… Even Alvin knew this in his youth!

Bart merely blinked. "What? No…really?" He seemed almost amused. Alvin could only nod his head with a half of a smirk. "You're not joking?"

"Bart, I'm going to ask you this as nicely as possible, and my only hope is that you heed what I am about to say: keep Brad's feelings away from Brittany. Talk to him. I don't find it too amusing, or appropriate for this matter, for a seventeen year-old _teenager_ to be crushing on women who are already married and perfectly fine with their life—meaning, I don't like your kid hanging around Brittany when he's ready to make a move. You know what I mean? C'mon, man to man, you'd understand this, right?" Alvin pat Bart's shoulder before dropping his hand back down to his side.

Chuckling, Bart scratched the back of his head, speaking, "Yeah, um, Alvin? I've taught my son to aim for the best, and win for the best things in life. I'm not going to discourage him with any of his choices. So, in answer to your request," he took in a deep breath and smiled, "I can't do what you're asking me. I mean, maybe you aren't the best for Brittany."

Alvin nodded his head, pursing his lips. Of course Bart was really going to allow his son to fall in love with his woman. The man obviously didn't understand what was at stake_. His freaking heart was at stake._ Was that not worth asking a favor for? Sure, he may have been selfish asking to cut off the one thing that would finalize the shot to his heart—sure, he was saving his own self—but this was just who he was. He was selfish with love. Love wasn't something that came that easily for many. If anything, he was lucky to have this love that he had. This is just who he _is. _When he sees something he likes, he takes it. And when he has something he loves, he keeps it. It was as simple as that.

Inhaling a deep breath, Alvin placed his left hand up on Bart's shoulder. "Bart, I'm not asking. We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. What do you say? I'm giving you a chance to keep that pretty-boy face of yours to stay in one whole piece…"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you then, Alvin," Bart chuckled, "because I won't do that. Brad's young, and who knows, maybe he does have a shot."

Alvin nodded his head with a grim smirk. He couldn't tell if Bart was just joking, or being plain stupid. Either way…he didn't care. He's been having a lot of steam build up these past few weeks just at the mere sight of Brad, so… "Well, if you're going to allow the possibility for me to break stay loose out there, then I'm going to go ahead and allow the possibility for you to break physically, loose, too. Can't say I didn't give you a choice, because I did." With that said, he swung his right fist square on into Bart's face, smashing right into his nose.

As Bart stumbled back, cussing violently, covering his now bleeding nose, Alvin looked down to his fist in astonishment. "For the record, I've _always _wanted to do that. And man does it feel amazing!" He continued to stare down at his hand in wonder.

Flustered, Bart ignored his burning nose and sped toward Alvin. "Why you son of a—" He slammed his body into Alvin's, much like football players would when trying to tackle the offensive side. Barely prepared for the hit, Alvin brought out his own football side as well. It was funny—both he and Bart used to be on the same team in high school for their football. Now they were playing each other as enemies.

Feeling the blood heat up in a hot pulse throughout his body, Alvin threw another punch to his opponent's stomach, but that only seemed to anger Bart more and he shoved harder. In the beat of a hummingbird's wing flap, Alvin was suddenly toppling over some bicycles, aligned and locked up on the public silver bicycle rack, Bart on top of him. Rolling over the clanging bicycles, the two heated males passed a border and were now rolling onto the terrain of the warm, sandy beach. As the two made the hard collision on the grainy sand, their bodies each aching from the places they each had taken a hit to, they continued with full fire.

Coming to an aching stand, Bart came running over to Alvin for another tackle. As the blonde man's head collided and pushed into Alvin's stomach, Alvin only fought back with more punches and attempts to shove Bart off of him.

Without even noticing or realizing it, Alvin and Bart were creating quite a scene. People were pulling out their phones, while others seemed to be snickering at the fight, and the rest backed away in order to steer clear of getting ran in to. The loud ruckus made from Alvin and Bart had people averting their gaze away from the main attraction. Random people approached the fight scene, while others were too occupied with the parade.

"Warned you, Bart," Alvin gritted as he threw another punch.

"I'm going to make you cry, Seville!" Bart threatened.

"Not until I make you cry—first!" he grunted as the two continued on with their fight.


	9. Chapter 9

"Brittany," Eleanor chided, trailing behind her sister, "are you sure? I mean, what are the odds that you, of all people, would get put into this type of situation?—and I don't mean that in an offensive way," she quickly added, catching her sister glaring back at her coldly.

Brittany heaved out a sigh, explaining through forced words, "I don't know! Why don't you ask Jeanette?" She abruptly turned around, coming face to face with her blonde sister, an irritated smile boldly hanging on to her features. Eleanor merely crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, that's what I thought," she scoffed, turning on her heels and heading on her way once again.

But as Brittany and Eleanor emerged out of the thickest part of the crowd, they found themselves encountering a clustered ring of people who were making quite the ruckus over probably something stupid. Brittany rolled her eyes, ready to walk away, but before she could take her leave, Eleanor set her hand on her shoulder, lingering over to the group of people. "Wait a second," Eleanor had said, her glistening brown eyes discontent on the crowd.

_Now what? _Brittany grinded her teeth, showing her annoyance in the most obvious way possible by sighing loudly and grimly glaring at her sister. As she stared after her sister, her gaze then faltered to the lowering sun, leaving the sky in a mist of pinks and oranges. They were kind of in a rush—they had a time limit. Didn't Eleanor know that? They didn't have time to wander off and go chase butterflies—there was no time to catch a falling star. No!—who _knows_ how long it will take them to find missing persons one and two.

Suddenly Eleanor was standing beside Brittany, taking the same amount of time it took her to gain curiosity to simply losing it. "It was just a fist fight going on," she pursed her lips, shrugging her shoulders. "Alright, so where to…?" But when she turned to her sister, she found that she was already on her way over to the crowd surrounding the fight. "Brittany?" she called hesitantly. She could've sworn Brittany was the one who originally wasn't interested in whatever was going on over there… Sighing when she got no immediate response, she trailed behind her sister, her curiosity perking as she stepped closer to the crowd.

Halting in her steps, Brittany turned on her heel, her cream-hued, two tiered, glittering dress flashing the sun in a flare. "C'mon," she beckoned, "no _stupid_ brawl between two idiots is going to distract us. Not this time around." With that stated, she began heading on her way, walking past the crowding group. As her gaze scanned their area, she found herself suddenly staring at the crowding group once more. As a man broke off from the group, allowing a small gap to the inside world the people covered show for just a second, her ice blue gaze caught something she wasn't expecting. Was it the flash of red that caught her attention? Or was it the familiar personage she saw? She wasn't even sure, but whatever it was, it was drawing her near the crowd once more, as if a string were tugging her along.

Her youngest sister called after her, once agian, but it only came to her ears like a distant echo. As Brittany picked up her pace and shoved her way through the crowd, ignoring the annoyed looks she got from a few of the people, she had finally pushed her way through to the front. Immediately her eyes widened to the size of the moon.

"Alvin!?" she hollered, stepping into the fighting ring. The two men, having not heard Brittany, absentmindedly began stumbling in her direction, abruptly bumping into her, causing her to fall back onto her elbows. "Hey!" she whined before she really began to feel the stinging pain

Alvin, suddenly having noticed a newcomer, looked to find Brittany glaring daggers at him on the sandy ground. Surprised, he smirked sheepishly, barely managing to say, "Did Hades kick you out from the Underworld? Or did the gods find you such a disgrace to Aphrodite they had to throw you out?—I mean, you're lying there on your back—I can only assume it was probably the latter: the gods probably just dropkicked you to fall right there." His own words caught him off guard—they surprised him more than they normally would have. Saying those words were so sweet to his tongue, yet also quite foreign. He really missed being able to say those kinds of things freely…

"Aha, aha, aha…you're such a charm, Alvin. Is that why you're trying to use it on guys because you just can't seem to attract any girls?" Brittany sarcastically sneered, gesturing towards his opponent, picking herself up off of the ground, wiping the grainy sand off of her in disgust.

"Aww, Britt, you calling yourself—a guy?" he grunted, as he took a punch to the stomach.

Brittany's jaw fell ajar as she stared alarmed at Alvin. Okay, first off, she wasn't a man. And secondly, why was he fighting? And thirdly, if whoever was fighting him injured him in anyway, whatsoever, she would personally make him wish he never was born. This last thought froze her blood. On second thought, she didn't give a care in the world if he got injured—however, if he got injured in any way that would distort his figuration… She shook her head. If anyone was going to physically harm him, it would be her. She needed a proper conversation with Alvin—she wasn't going to talk to him while he was playing the manly edition of "tea party" with his _new best friend_.

"Okay!" Brittany squeezed her way in, shoving herself between the two boys, her back to Alvin. "Knock it off!" she shoved the blonde man as hard as she could, before turning around to Alvin, pressing her hands firmly against his chest as he stepped forward once more. "Hey! What are you doing?! What's wrong? What could you two boys possibly need to be fighting about? You know, you could fight with your words, and not with your fists. Is what you and Bonehead over there something really worth fighting like this for?" Her cold blue eyes searched his face, almost desperately. What was going on? First he begins to act like a stranger around her, and now he's going off starting his own riots. The next thing he would be doing is holding a gun and someone's heart: she wasn't sure whether it was hers or his. "You know, that John Doe act you're putting up is really not that funny," her lips twitched slightly down.

"Man, that's really funny 'cause…" a voice behind her began.

Brittany flicked her head around to the blonde man. "Zip it," she snapped. "I will personally break each and every bone in your body if I hear one more word out of that stupid little mouth of yours. Understood?" she flashed a sweet smile at him, turning back to Alvin. As she opened her mouth, however, she slowly turned her head back over to the blonde man. Giving him strange faces and blinking a few times, her eyes glazed over in astonishment. "Bart?" she blinked some more at him. She barely recognized him—was this even the Bart she once knew?—it felt like she was looking at a photoshopped image of her former crush. How weird was that?

"Yup. You got that right, Sweetheart," he responded, flicking the old varsity jacket he wore. "And, just so you know, I wasn't the one who started the fight."

Blinking some more, Brittany slowly craned her neck back around towards Alvin, giving him an interesting look. She normally would've gotten furious…but how could she? Something was clearly wrong with him. Was he breaking? Was he so fed up with his life? Was he just bored and decided to create a so-called "party"? He would do that. What was wrong with him?

As Brittany searched Alvin's eyes, she soon dropped her head and averted her gaze away. He wasn't talking, and she felt self-conscious with all of the surrounding eyes watching them. How long had they been standing there in silence anyway? Much too long for Time to tell. Picking her gaze up, she scoffed, "You know what? Fine. Don't talk to me. I've had enough with this drama—I don't even know why I even bothered to stop this fight—heck, I don't even know why I came over here. Go back to your fighting. Break your nose, crack your head, get internal bleeding. That's fine." She paused, staring into his eyes once more. Pursing her lips, she sucked in the ocean breeze. "I'll see you back at home," she muttered lowly, turning around.

Alvin sighed. _Confession time… _Rubbing the back of his neck, he spoke up, but kept it low, directed towards the ground, "You."

"'You'?" Brittany pronounced slowly, facing back towards him. "What?"

"It was you…" Alvin muttered lowly under his breath, keeping his eyes anywhere but on her. It was easier this way…great. Now he was back to stage one: it was uncomfortable: he was awkward. Just where he wanted to be… _Not._

She bit her bottom lip to stop the overflowing words fighting to pour out. She had two choices. One, she could just stop the world and walk away. It was that simple. Two, she could stay and give it her best shot and be the best friend she always has been with him. It was that simple as well. But what one was the hardest out of the two?

She closed her eyes and let her head hang a little, allowing her free flowing hair to gently wave, with the help of the wind, to the sea. Pursing her lips, she tested the motion in her feet. As she tried to lift her foot, she found her foot was rooted in to the ground. Testing the other foot, she found that that foot was rooted deep into the ground too. Here she was, trying to move, yet she couldn't. Well, so much for having two options…

"Hey, what's going on here?" Brad suddenly showed up.

Brittany abruptly turned her head, her right eyebrow twitching in dismay. Instantly her left hand shot out to the neck of Alvin's leather jacket, for she could feel his body heat leaving her. He was walking away. "Not so fast, Seville," she mumbled to him, dragging him along with her as she approached Brad. _Quick and easy: she was getting this over and done with. Right now, this second. _Smiling brightly, she came face to face with Brad and placed her free hand on his shoulder. Brad began to open his mouth, but she cut him off. "Brad," she let his name sink into the silence as she slowly shook her head, "no. Nuh-uh. I don't know what you think of me, or if you're just plain stupid and have completely fallen for me, according to little birdies, but: No. Okay? No. Find some cute girl that's your age. Not someone that's like me. Got it?" She lightly shoved his shoulder she still held onto, catching his facial expressions that told a story of shock, confusion, and a bit of hurt—but, she didn't care. He wasn't of her concern from the very start anyway.

As she turned around, her hand now on Alvin's arm, for during her small conversation she had loosened her grip just a little to give him a little bit of freedom, she shoved her hands into his chest, pushing him back a little. "Speak," she commanded, crossing her arms. She shoved him back some more. "Why are you so scared of me?" She pushed him back once again. "What's _wrong?!_" She moved to shove him back some more, but he caught her wrists.

Pulling her in, Alvin leaned in and spoke lowly, "Calm down—" his eyes wavered away from her— "I'll explain…" he mumbled. Brittany's eyes tried to catch his eyes, but he kept averting them away from her. He gently loosened his grip on her wrists, but subconsciously continued to hold on to her; it was for his own security. He bit his bottom lip before speaking up. As he tried to explain in the most unemotional, humanly-manliest way possible, by the time he was done, he finally had found his courage trapped under the entire ruckus that came crashing down from his tower, and freed it. He began to feel at ease, and all of the uneasiness was getting chased away.

While Brittany blinked at him, he quickly added, "Which is why I punched Bart…because I was really fed up with Brad—he's practically the spitting image of Bart!—and if you think I'm a jerk, Bart's an even bigger jerk, just so you know. So, I actually treat you fairly well when you consider other men."

Brittany's jaw slowly fell agape, and she turned to look at both Bart and Brad who were now speaking lowly among each other. As horror and wisdom filled her to the brim, she sewed her mouth shut, not even wanting to bother asking the obvious. Brad was Bart's son. No wonder Brad looked so familiar! There was something about him that made it feel like they'd already had been acquainted before…and now she knew why. She was practically seeing the light at the end of a dark tunnel.

"So,.." Brittany began, facing Alvin once more. "In other words…you got…jealous?"

Alvin's eyes shot to hers. "It's not jealousy!" he denied. "It's…it's—" he couldn't believe what he was about to say "—_concern_…"

"'Concern'? Oh, I see, you were _concerned," _she sneered in a mimicking way.

He finally released his grip on her wrists to fold his arms as he rolled his eyes. But in the process as he glanced at the world, he noticed the world looking back at them. In fact, the world was staring at them with its hundred pairs of eyes. Leaning in as a small smirk began to emerge across his face, Alvin whispered, "Wrap your arms around me like you're giving me a hug."

Brittany raised her eyebrows and shook her head, crossing her arms. "In your dreams, Al—"

Alvin quickly hushed her, taking hold of her as he pressed his lips swiftly to hers. Caught off guard, reflexively moving, Brittany pressed her hands against his chest in attempt to push him away, but he quickly ended the kiss, pulling her closer as he brushed his lips against her ear, speaking lowly, "We have an audience. Just play along."

Hearing this, Brittany's narrowed ice blue eyes took in their surroundings, suddenly realizing how many people had crowded around them with curious eyes._ Gosh, why didn't the public know how to keep to their own business?! _Resentfully giving in, she slid her arms up to wrap around his neck. She couldn't believe she was actually giving in to something like this… Rising up on her tiptoes, she confirmed her arms wrapped around his neck, trying her best to not look so conspicuous to the crowd.

"Kiss me on the cheek—" Alvin began.

"_What? Why?!" _Brittany hissed, trying to hide her obvious glare into his neck.

"—because it'll make us look like we're an actual couple," he gritted.

Pursing her lips, she quickly pecked her lips to where he asked, and grinned as she leaned her lips towards his ear. "I am going to kill you, Seville. You, Mister, are _so, so, so, _dead…" she hissed, keeping the crowd fooled by her innocent, smiling face.

Finally, when the two pulled away from each other, Alvin with a smug grin, Brittany with a grimacing smirk, their so-called "audience" began to clap and cheer as if they had just seen some professional Broadway production, live, without having to buy a ticket. As the crowd continued to clap their hands, a few of the people began to speak amongst themselves saying things such as, "I've seen something like this in New York—but this one was _way _better," "That was so darling," "Why didn't they do this last year?" and "That seemed so real! I almost believed it myself!"

As Brittany shook her head at Alvin, the Twins suddenly emerged from the crowd. "Wow! I almost believed that myself!" Alvin Jr. exclaimed as he approached their parents.

"Oh, I know, right? Totally pulled it off right there…right? This was a real thing, right?" Al Jr. glanced to his twin before looking back over to Alvin and Brittany.

Alvin hung his left arm around Brittany, shrugging, "I don't know…was it real? You know, we could've been fooling you boys all along…" A small smirk began to form on his face.

Shrugging his arm off of her, Brittany leered, "But, we weren't fooling you…"

"Oh, but then again, weren't we not?" he added, causing Brittany to scrunch her face in confusion.

The Twins merely blinked. "What? I don't even…" Alvin Jr. looked to his twin. "I don't even know what just happened…"

"Yeah…I know…this is…" Al Jr. shook his head, whistling a blow out of his lips. "It just went right over my head."

Alvin folded his arms, cocking his head. "That's funny that you two boys think this is weird…because, honestly I think you two hiding in that tiny, impy little closet was confusing." Alvin and Al Jr.s' eyes widened. "I mean, why were you even hiding in _that _closet, of all closets? You know that that's the smallest one, right? And why were you boys even hanging out in that closet? Is that the new thing nowadays for teenagers to do? Hang out in the smallest closet possible?" he smirked a half smile.

With mouths hanging down to the ground, Alvin and Al Jr. looked to each other. "Uh… Umm…" What? How did he know? They could hear the applause fading to loud murmurings of voices and distant echoing music.

"You boys were hiding in the closet?" Brittany crossed her arms, raising her eyebrows with interest.

"Uh, umm…" The two boys looked to each other sheepishly, chuckling nervously. They were hiding in the closet? Them? No…no…they were…they were… _They had nothing. _As the two brothers communicated between psychic vibes, they nodded their heads when they finally came to an agreement: it was Escape Plan 234 that they were going to use…

As Alvin and Al Jr. opened up their mouths, readying to speak, they froze. _What exactly was Escape Plan 234? _

Al Jr. quickly acted and spurted out the first excuse that came to mind: "We've got to go to ballet practice!" Alvin Jr. snapped his head in his brother's direction with wide eyes. As soon as Al Jr. himself knew what he just said, he mentally face-palmed his forehead. "Right now." He had wide eyes. It was definitely time for them to take their leave…

"Uh, yes," Alvin Jr. clasped his hands. "I don't know if you heard, but Al here got the role of the Magical Fairy Princess in the school play and…" Alvin Jr. looked to his brother, wrapping his arm around his brother's shoulder with a devious smirk. He was simply getting pay back for him saying something so girly. "Al was just too excited to tell you, and wanted to save it as a surprise."

Alvin and Brittany flashed glances with one another, an elusive mask of a smirk covering their features.

"Yes," Al Jr. chuckled, "and did you know that Alvin here got this so-called Magical Fairy Princess' twin sister's role? Yep! You wouldn't believe it but he did!" Al Jr., too, wrapped his arm around his brother. "He's the Magical Pixie _Queen—_since his character is the better ruler over little, creepy, magical creatures."

"O-ho-ho," Alvin Jr. laughed sarcastically, "that's right! But Al's part has a bigger,_ exclusive _dance solo scene where he dances in this cute baby pink tutu, and for a bonus he gets a _wand! _A nice, big, sparkly, fluffy _wand! _And you know what? He actually will be dancing in _point _shoes! Hear that? Point shoes! I don't know if you guys knew, but he has exceptional feet that can point and curve like the Wicked Witch of the West's nose. Astounding, right?" He gave his grimacing twin a big pat on the back. "Who knew he had such hidden talent?"

Al Jr. grinned and simply returned the pat on his brother's back, "Um, don't you think it's time we left, Alvin? We're going to be late to our ballet class, and I know how much you love to do ballet—so let's not waste any more time."

"Yes…" Alvin Jr. grinned back. "Yes… I love…ballet…" He turned to Alvin and Brittany. "Well, bye Dad! Bye Mom! We have ballet practice to go to! Cheerio, mates! Cheerio!" And with that stated, the two brothers broke off into a run, shoving and stumbling as they rammed into each other's shoulders with wide grim smiles.

Exhaling out slowly, Alvin ran a stray hand through his hair, shaking his head with a half-smile. "Why didn't they just use football as their excuse to take ballet?" He was so confused… Brittany could only nod her head, not having much to say after that.

Looking to Brittany, Alvin smugly smiled. "Wanna get out of here?"

Brittany glanced to him with doubt. "With you?"

Reaching his hand out to her, he shrugged his shoulders.

As she stared down at his open, waiting hand, she looked down to her own hand. Technically, if she was placing her hand in his hand, that was like giving him her future. There was that saying that you held your future in the palm of your hand. He had let go of her hand when he was filled with his "concern"…but he came back and found her. He wasn't exactly all that reliable…but he was a fighter. If anything, for what it's worth, she'd rather have someone who would fight for her, other than stand behind the sidelines while still holding her hand for their own comfort.

Letting him take her hand would mean she was letting go of this fantasy world of hers…and honestly, she was so ready to get taken away from it. This fantasy world was too temperamental for her. It was too boring. It didn't make her happy. It made everything she knew as strong, weak; it turned the bold into being scared; and last of all, it used fear as an enemy. It was time to say goodbye to it before she lost her mind to her own insanity.

Brittany gave a small grin, eyeing him carefully while placing her hand in his.

He merely smirked. "I knew you'd take it—not that I had any doubt—which I didn't—but let's face it: you just can't resist me, Britt. I'm a ladykiller."

And the fantasy world died, destroyed by its own destruction. She would never wander back into that world—not even by accident. Now that she's actually dealt with that mythical world in reality, she's done. She was staying homebound. They say love and hate are separated by a thin silver line, and that's where she'd rather be: right in between—because that's exactly where she felt comfortable. This relationship wasn't ruled by the sentiments of love, or of hate. It was ruled by both. In her fantasy world, none of those things existed. He didn't exist, and she didn't even exist either. Only apathy lived there, consuming the soul to one of a lonely, separated life.

His tower was rebuilt, constructed on a firmer foundation. Stronger stones repaired the walls to his tower. And everything that protected him was raised from the dead, and had escaped the shadows of all that opposed him of who he was. As everything that built him up on the high pedestal he stood on took his world back over, capturing the last of every negative thing that nearly slayed his heart, he enthroned his world as his own once more, and he ruled it back over. He controlled who he was, and he controlled everything he could control of his future.

But he no longer stood on that high pedestal of his anymore. Who he was no longer was the most important thing he wanted to protect. He no longer could stand on his own pedestal. The most important thing in his life that belonged up on that pedestal of his, he was just about to take.

As he took hold of her given hand, his smirk deepened, and he took her away with him, never letting go.

* * *

The End.

* * *

***So sorry for the confusion! Special thanks to that guest reviewer for pointing out that I had not put any indication that this story was officially over... What kind of bozo forgets to say "The End" at the end of their stories? (Me...)***

**Okay! So, yes, that fight scene was totally uncalled for and wasn't needed...but I felt like doing a fight scene. I love fight scenes. Don't ask why. And plus since this story was already down a path where the storyline wasn't exactly the brightest or the most creative, I thought why not. ;D**

**And yes, I _know _thi****_s _story could easily be the dumbest story you've ever read. That's fine. If you think it's amazing, great! If not, sure! I'll live.**

**And again, yes, normally I'd prefer to not post two chapters at a time, but...I really just wanted this story to be out and about. I didn't want to have to worry about it anymore.**

_**The inspiration for this story came to me while I was running. So there's this movie that I've only seen once, and for some odd reason, I remember it perfectly, and this film isn't even my favorite...but anyway, the movie **_**17 Again**_**, it has this scene (and maybe for those who have seen this movie know what scene I'm talking about), and that scene made me think of the oldie song **_**Stacy's Mom**_** by Fountains Of Wayne and...this song, it's really catchy...but as soon as you start to pay attention to the lyrics, it's like...wait, what? Haha, but the song really is catchy. I like it, to some extent... But yeah! So there you have it! This is pretty much where the idea formed. At first I thought about making Alvin being the lovestruck one with an older woman, but...to me, I think Alvin would back down as soon as he figured out this crush was married or already taken and probably complain with a "Why?" and such, so...I moved on with using the twins and giving them a friend. And I know, it was a bit of a stretch to connect Bart into this story...but it really is a small world, so, why not?**_

**Thanks SO so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this! And please, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this story overall. I know it's not the best, yes, but I'd really like to hear some feedback. If you don't like it, that's fine. Not everyone will like it, and I get that. And just be honest if you do plan on reviewing, don't worry if you think I'll hate you because I most likely won't. I promise you that.**


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